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KATHAHIH 1! B . J&QHUL
SIX MONTHS
IN
.•
THE WEST DIES
IN
1825
l\~EW-YORK :
3. & C. CARVILL, AND E. BLISS & E. WH^'E.
Sleight & Tucker, Printers, Jamaica.
1826.
CONTENTS.
Page
REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD • • 5
MADEIRA „ • 13
CROSSING THE TROPIC 38
BARBADOS • • 43
TRINIDAD 60
GRENADA 96
st. Vincent's 103
ST. LUCIA • • 112
BARBADOS 123
MARTINIQUE 127
DOMINICA • 136
MONTSERRAT 152
NEVIS • 172
ST. CHRISTOPHER'S 187
ANGUILLA 201
ANTIGUA 216
BARBUDA 243
BARBADOS 255
PLANTERS AND SLAVES , 274
THE END 292
S. 6. & E. L. ELBERT
SIX MONTHS
IN THE
WEST INDIES.
REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD.
X he doctors disagreed. According to four first-
rate opinions, I groaned at one and the same time
under rheumatism proper, rheumatic gout, gout
proper, and an affection in the spinous process.
The serious signs of one were the favourable
symptoms of another, and the prescriptions of the
first in direct oppugnancy to the principles of the
last. To-day 1 was to drink water at Buxton,
the morrow to drink water at Bath, on Wednesday
1 was to go to Italy, and on Thursday I had better
stay at home.
The fact was, the doctors could not make out
my case.
Reader, if by mischance thou art one of those
unhappy persons whom the climate of our famous
mother England, in punishment of thy many sins
m chattering French instead of thy kindly verna-
6 REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD.
cular, in giving half-a-guinea to Italians instead of
three shillings and sixpence to Britons, in cleaving
to wine and eschewing beer, hath touched with
her insular cramp in shoulders, elbows, wrists, fin-
gers, back, loins, knees, ancles or toes. ..if such
be the case, go not, I entreat thee for thy good,
to any of the faculty, whether physician, surgeon,
apothecary or druggist, licensed or unlicensed ;
save thy good coin, gentle rheumatic, in thy purse
for better merchandize and laissez aller les choses ;
torment not the creature with drenches and ban-
dages, and peradventure it will ache thee some
months the less for being entertained civilly, at
all events thou wilt have economized so much mo-
ney, escaped so much physic, and it will go harder
with thee than with any body else, if thou get not
well again every whit as soon.
True it is, though I speak it to my shame, that
I did, in the impatience of my heart, betake my-
self to medicine for relief. It was promised to me
abundantly. I am ready to communicate to any
earnest inquirer, twenty and five infallible prescrip-
tions, every one of which has effected so many
cures, that it is somewhat surprizing that the com-
bined action of all of them together has not, a long
time ago driven rheumatism clean out of the Uni-
ted Kingdom. 1 never met with any of these re-
deemed ones, but, as Sancho says, he, who told me
the story, said that it was so certain and true, that
REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD. i
I might well, whenever I told it to another, affirm
and swear that I had seen them all myself. There
was, indeed, no resisting the kindness of my friends :
I was all things to all men and to all women ; I ate
this to please my cousin Lucy, and drank that to
oblige my cousin Margaret; I was steamed by one,
showered by another, just escaped needling by a
third, and was nearly boiled to the consistency of a
pudding for the love of an oblong gentleman of
Ireland, who had cured so many of his tenants on
a bog in Tipperary by that process, that he offered
to stake his salvation upon the success of the expe-
riment. It failed, and, the article not being trans-
ferable, I forgave him the debt.
I mentioned my two cousins above ; I wish you
knew them, reader ; your state would be the more
gracious, but I will introduce them to you in five
minutes. They are sisters, well stricken in years,
and for more than half their lives have lived within
hail of each other. Kinder souls, I dare say,
never humanized the rugged humours of a mar-
ket town by their guardian residence; doing good
really seems the business of their existence. Ge-
nuine old school are they to the heels of their
shoes; notable housewives in keeping the outside
and the inside of the platter clean ; so keen in
cheapening a dinner, that our itinerant fishmonger
must have abandoned his calling with loss, had
he not with great skill and secrecy opened a coun-
8 REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD.
termine ; for perceiving that no emergency of fast
no necessity of feast, could ever induce my cou-
sins to give more than a half of what he demand-
ed for his commodities, his pregnant invention led
him to ask just twice as much at first as he intend-
ed to take at last ; the ladies, not knowing either
the real or the market price of the exotics, are
perfectly satisfied in their consciences when they
have openly reduced the enemy to a moiety, and
thus by this simple and ingenious scheme of com-
merce, the interests of all parties are reconciled,
the fishmonger thrives, my cousinhood is content
and I get as much fish as a somewhat robust appe-
tite can manage to entertain.
But with all the manifold virtues which adorn
the characters of my dear cousins, a scrupulous
adherence to truth forces me to say, (and I know
them too well to fear their taking the remark ill,)
that they cherish one presumptuous sin, one stain
of the Fall, ...which seems to be as much the dar-
ling passion of autumnal womanhood, as personal
distinction is of girls, and charitable conversation
of elderly young females in general. I would say
tfiftft my two relations have more than their just
share of that strange humour, which craves the
infliction of physic on the human race, of that lust
for rhubarb and magnesia, which neither ridicule,
remonstrance, or casual homicide can utterly abo-
lish or destroy from the anile bosom. The bold-
REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD. 9
ness of their practice is unequal. Lucy, who upon
these occasions never forgets that she is the widow
of a medical man, confesses a hankering after calo-
mel ; Margaret is also willing, but a soft temper and
the recollection of two strengthening plasters, as
she called them, which she administered to herself
with the best intentions at the commencement of a
fever, have much abated her courage. She is a
very serious woman, and in my opinion, has never
wholly lost the impression made upon her mind on
the first morning of her recovery from the kisses of
the cantharides, when going, like Don Quixote to
his book-room, to visit her beloved medicine chest,
she found, indeed, that precious receptacle safe,
but with this appalling superscription imprinted on
it, " The Cave of Death." A relation of mine, a
notable wag, was the author of this piece of wit ;
and to this day my good cousin cannot hear it men-
tioned with perfect equanimity.
The poor of the parish, twenty or thirty of whom
are in constant patience upon one or other of these
ladies, have their praises ever on their lips ; not
altogether, I imagine, on account of the medical
advice which they receive, but partly perhaps in
grateful acknowledgement of certain accompani-
ments of broth, beef, mutton, wine, cider, &c. which
they rarely fail to obtain at the same time from the
same hands ; the wise pauper balances the evil with
the good, and learns to set a good dinner against a
2*
10 REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD,
black dose. Formerly indeed it is believed that
some ungracious spirits took the meat but did not
take the physic ; to prevent which practice for the
future my cousins insisted that the drugs should be
drunken in their presence, just as man-of-war's
men must swallow six-water grog on deck before
the officer on watch. Now, whether it be the
medicine or the dinners I know not, but certain it
is that my cousins' patients are blessed with uncom-
mon longevity ; some of the old women in particular
are so immortal that a very respectable overseer
could not forbear saying, that though he approved
of charity and almsgiving sub modo, yet this was
really carrying the matter a little too far; it was
making the present generation sustain not the indi-
gent and old of their own times only, but those of
past ages also.
Be that as it may —
Pious and humble women ! your errors are for-
given on earth, your silent virtues recorded in
Heaven by Him who sees in secret. Long, long
• : :
may you live to mitigate the distresses of suffering
humanity around you, and may you have no heavier
charge to answer hereafter than that of having kept
a score or two of old souls a burthen on the parish-
rate a few years longer than hunger and sorrow
would. otherwise have ordered it!
If this little book had been one of the thousand
and one journals of tours in France or Italy or
REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD. 11
Switzerland ; or if it had been a true and authentic
history of Loo-Choo, of the Ashantees, or of a
Polar expedition, I should not have taken the trou-
ble of writing this preliminary chapter. But the
West Indies are quite another thing. 1 have seen
men set down as fanatics or tyrants before their
speech has been listened to, and as 1 have a credible
anxiety for the sale of my work, it imports me much
that I should make myself well understood on this
head. I do not wish any one to entertain a good
opinion of me, but I shall feel deeply indebted to
any person who will be kind enough to have no
opinion whatever of me or about me. I am in per-
fect charity with all mankind, that is to say, I care
infinitely nothing about any of them, except some
dozen and a half good folks of my own sort. I bow
to the African Institution,. . .they do their work,
as is fitting, in a truly African manner; I bend as
low to the Planters,. . .they are a trifle choleric or
so, but F remember that the nerves become exces-
sively irritable under the rays of a vertical sun. I
protest in print that I had not the honour to travel
as an agent of either of these amicable societies. I
went simply and sheerly on my own account, or
rather on account of the aforesaid rheumatism ;
for as every other sort of chemical action had failed,
I was willing to try if fusion would succeed. This
was my main reason for going abroad, to". which
perhaps I must add a certain vagabond humour
12 REASONS FOR GOING ABROAD.
which I inherited from my mother. If Yorick
had written after me, he would have mentioned the
Rheumatic Traveller. This book is rheumatic
from beginning to end ; all its peculiarities, its
diverse affections, its irregular spirits flow from that
respectable source. I picked up so plentiful a lack
of science at Eton, the first of all schools, and at
Cambridge, the first of all universities, except
the London, that no one need be of my opinion
unless he likes it* I rarely argue a matter unless
my shoulders or knees ache ; and if I should have
the misfortune upon any such occasion to be over-
earnest with any of my readers, I trust they will
think it is my rheumatism that chides, leave me so :
and peacefully pass on to the next chapter.
MADEIRA.
Imaginative reader ! have you ever been in a gale
of wind on the edge of the Bay of Biscay ? If not,
and you are fond of variety, it is really worth your
while to take a trip to Lisbon or Madeira for the
chance of meeting with one. Calculate your sea-
son well in December or January, when the south-
wester has properly set in, and you will find it one
of the finest and most uncomfortable things in the
world. My gale lasted from Sunday till Wednesday
evening, which is something long perhaps for amuse-
ment, but it gave ample room for observation and
philosophy. I think I still hear that ineffable hub-
bub of plates and glasses breaking, chairs and tables
falling, women screaming, saiiors piping, officers
swearing, the wind whistling, and the sea roaring,
which awakened me about two o'clock on Monday
morning from one of those sweet dreams, wherein,
through infinite changes and indistinct combinations
of imagery, thy loved form, Eugenia, for ever pre-
vails in its real and natural beauty. The Atlantic
was gushing in through my port in a very refreshing
manner, and ebbing and flowing under and around
14 MADEIRA.
my bed with every roll of the ship. My clothes
were floating on the face of the waters. I turned
to sleep again, but the sea came with that awful
dead sledge-hammer beat, which makes a landsman's
heart tremble, and the impertinent quotation of
some poor scholar in the next cabin about quatuor
aut septem digitos brushed every atom of Morphic
dust from my eyes. I sat bolt upright, and for
some time contemplated, by the glimmering of the
sentry's lantern, the huge disarray of my pretty
den ; I fished fbr my clothes, but they were bath-
ing ; I essayed to rise, but I could find no resting-
place for the sole of a rheumatic foot. However,
I was somewhat consoled by a sailor who came to
bale out the water at day-break ;. . . " a fine breeze.
Sir, only it's dead on end for us ; and to be sure, I
minds the Apollo and thirty-two marchmantmen
were lost somewhere in these here parts." It was
kindly meant of Jack, no doubt, though he was out
in his latitude by eight degrees at least.
I think I never shall forget the sciene of beauty
and terror which presented itself to me on deck.
Every thing, indeed, becomes tame by long fami-
liarity, and the old mariner has no eye for any thing
in a gale except his topmasts ; but to the fresh and
apprehensive mind what is there on land so un-
speakably grand as a storm on the ocean ? The
lone ship under treble reefed topsails and staysails
lay groaning like a gigantic skeleton in agony 5 a
MADEIRA. 15
dreadful hedge or wall of waters confined the hori-
zon to a hundred yards around us ; the sea as black
as death, save when, as each enormous wave arose
on high, the furious blast caught up its long crest of
foam, and dashed it into atoms of smoky mist. The
sun also shone out with a wild appearance at inter-
vals, and the rays of light, refracted by the spray-
shower, formed themselves into fairy arches of pris-
matic coloring in every direction as far as the eye
could reach. On Tuesday the wind lulled for
some time, but at night it blew again as before ;
and on Wednesday we had a succession of squalls
at intervals of a quarter of an hour, each sharper
than the other, which exceeded in violence any
thing I could have imagined. Under the last of
them the top-gallant masts quivered like reeds, the
shrouds gave music like Eolian harps, and the eyes
of the silent veterans were fixed anxiously aloft.
It was the dying blast of Africus ; the rain came
down in torrents, the wind fell, and we were left at
the mercy of a dead mountainous swell of a furlong
in length, which put the good ship almost on her
beam, ends.
Buonaparte had the credit of saying that there
was but one step from the sublime to the ridicu-
lous ; there were precisely seven on board His
Majesty's ship. On deck all was terrible or lovely,
in the cabin every thing was absurd or disgusting.
It is idle to attempt the description, for the thing
16 MADEIRA.
has been done before ; carpets cut up, water dash-
ing to and fro, dead lights in, a lack-lustre lamp,
sea-pye, men and women hungry and thirsty and
nauseatic, projections of plates, chairs, knives, ser-
vants, soup, wives together with husbands and all
other appurtenances under a lee lurch, ill-humour,
hatred, vomiting, malice, and all uncharitableness,
formed the grand features of the picture. I cannot
go on with the details ; mens refugit ; I dislike
dwelling on the infirmities of humanity.
The wind came round fair, the sea fell smooth,
the sun shone brightly, the sky was without a cloud
for a week afterwards, and on the last day of 1824
we made and passed Porto Santo, and, shrouded in
clouds, Madeira rose before us.
O Madeira, Madeira, O thou gem of the ocean,
thou paradise of the Atlantic ! I have no heart to
lake up my pen to write of the days which I spent
in thee ; surely they were days of enchantment
intercalated in the year of common reality, ethe-
rial moments islanded, like thyself, in the vast sea
of time ! Dear England ! thou art a noble country,
wise, powerful, and virtuous 4.^ but thou hast no
such purple waves as those which swell towards
Funchal ; thou hast no such breezes of intoxication
as those which then fanned my cheek and carried
animation to my heart ; thou hast no over-arched
avenues of vines, no golden clysters of orange and
lemon, no quintas, no Corral ? I felt, for the first
MADEIRA. 17
time, but it passed away soon, a wish to live and
die far from my native country ; it seemed for a
moment that it would be poetical happiness to
dwell with one loved companion amidst these quiet
mountains, and gaze at evening on the lovely sea
and the lone Dezertas on the horizon. I did not
choose any of the gay and luxurious houses which
adorn the bosom ot the amphitheatre above the
town ; I admired, like all the world, their perfect
elegance and glorious prospect, but they did not fill
my heart with that fondness which I felt for one
simple mansion in the distant parish of Camacha.
I often hear the brawling brook at night, and think
myself seated on the bench of green turf, drinking
that cool bottle of wine, with a view of Rosa and
the pretty church beyond. If the ancients had
known Madeira, it would have been their plusquam
fortunata insula, and the blessed spirits of the Gen-
tiles, after a millennium of probationary enjoyment
in the Canaries, would have been translated thither
to live for ever on nectar and oranges.
Pour toujours
Cerivage
Est sans nuit et sans ora&e*
Pour toujours
Cette aurore
Fait colore
Nos beaux jours.
3
18 MADEIRA,
C'est le port
De la vie ;
C'est le sort
Qu'on envie.
Le monde et ses faux attraits ?
Sont-ils faits
Pour nos regrets ?
Non, jamais !
Lieux propices,
Vous n'ofFrez que des delices !
Non, jamais !
Cet empire
Ne respire
Que la paix.
I should think the situation of Madeira the most
enviable on the whole earth. It ensures almost
every European comfort, together with almost
every tropical luxury. Any degree of tempera-
ture may be enjoyed between Funchal and the Ice
House. The seasons are the youth, maturity, and
old age of a never ending, still beginning spring.
Here I found what I used to suppose peculiar to
the Garden of Eden and the bowers of Acrasie and
Armida : —
Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue
Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colors mix'd.
The myrtle, the geranium, the rose, and the vio-
let, grow on the right hand and on the left in the
boon prodigality of primitive nature. The gera-
MADEIRA. 19
nium, in particular, is so common, that the honey
of the bees becomes something like a jelly of that
flower. I differ from most people in not liking it
so well as the English honey, though it is far purer
and more transparent. That of Barbados is finer
than either. Perhaps after having been within ten
degrees of the equator, a second visit to Madeira
would not charm me so deeply as the first ; I have
seen ocean and sky of a still brighter hue, and trees
and flowers and mountains of still more beautiful
and awful shapes. But I left England in Decem-
ber, shivering and melancholy under a rain of two
months continuance; foul winds, eternal tacking,
a tremendous gale and the Bay of Biscay destroyed
my spirits and increased my rheumatism ; so that I
longed after Madeira as for a land of promise, and
the first sight of Porto Santo, with its scattered
islets, its broken rocks, and verdant dells, filled my
heart with that joy which no one can feel who has
not made a voyage on the ocean.
Hallamonos cerquita de muy ledo
Puerto hermoso y lleno de frescura,
De arboles, naranjos et frutales,
Bastante de sanar a dos mil males.
Early on the morning of the 1st of January,
1325, we came slowly into the Bay of Funchal.
The towg, the country-houses, and Nossa Sen-
hora do Monte glistered like silver through the
20 MADEIRA.
thin mist which floated on the bosom of the moun-
tains. The bells of many churches soon began to
hail the new year with that blessed sound, which
mariners, beyond all others, love to hear. The
guns of salute roared from our ship, and the Ilheo
or Loo Rock answered them across the water. A
clumsy boat with four dark Madeiran rowers con-
veyed me to the shore, and when I touched it, I felt
a force, which 1 had not felt before, in the
Egressi optata Troes potiuntur arena.
The hospitality of the English merchants in
Maderia is princely. You cannot bring too many ;
you cannot stay too long. The houses of all are
open to the guests of each, and I never met with
less kindness from Stoddart, because I had shown
a preference for Gordon. I am loth to believe
that they look upon us only as customers, although
they lead vehemently into temptation, by Malmsey,
Tinta, and Sercial, and bid you remember the old
house, when they shake hands with you at parting.
There was a generality of intelligence, an inde-
pendence of spirit, and a courteousness of manner
about thole whom I saw, which seemed the effect
and the sytltptom of great opulence and unimpeach-
able credit. They have no huckstering, shop-keep-
ing, agency taint: they are true descendants (I
was going to say remnants) of that grand charac-
ter, the English merchant of former times. Their
MADEIRA. 21
information indeed with regard to certain islands,
which are laid down by geographers, more or less
in their neighbourhood, is remarkably narrow. I
can state it, however, for the satisfaction of the
scientific, as the result of much inquiry, that there
are such islands as Teneriffe, Palma, and Fayal,
and that there is reason to believe that the position
usually assigned to them in the charts is correct ;
at the same time there is so little, or I may say, no
intercourse between them and Madeira, that whe-
ther they are round or square, whether they are
one hundred, or one thousand leagues off, whether
they make wine or beer, are matters of much
doubt. Yellow fever, it also appears, rages in
some, and the plague in others ; the wine, if it can
be called wine, is, according to a few enterprizing
merchant-adventurers, so detestable, that the small-
est admixture of it would infallibly spoil forty times
its quantity of the true old London Particular;
so that all the idle stories which we hear igno-
rantly handed about in England of wine from
Fayal and Teneriffe being re-exported from Ma-
deira as the genuine production of the latter
island, are without question entirley false. And
such being the case, it is truly wonderful that a spot
comparatively so inconsiderable should be able to
supply the enormous demand for the wine called
Madeira, from England, the European continent,
the West Indies, and both Americas.
22 MADEIRA,
The town of Funchal stretches along the mar-
gin of the bay for nearly a mile and a half, but it w
barely a third of that size in breadth in any part.
It is by no means so dirty as the Portugueze like r
but the English residents are so influential here,
that they have been able to exercise a tyranny of
cleanliness, which the natives sullenly endure at
the hazard of catching colds. The cathedral is a
fine building, the furniture of the altar and lateral
shrines very rich in gold, silver, and pearls, and
fresh roses were hanging in chaplets and festoons
over and around the idols. There is no ceiling, but
the roof, formed of unpainted beams of wood, is
visible as in some of our old parish churches in
England, and the floor consists of nothing but loose
planks, which are continually removed for the pur-"
pose of depositing the corpses of the dead below.
This vile practice I observed in other churches hV
the island, and it is wonderful in such a climate,
that it does not destroy the worshippers, as it im-
pairs the beauty and solemnity of the place of wor-
ship. Before the western door of the cathedral is
a parvis or open space, and beyond that, the Ter-
reiro da Se, a very pleasant promenade, under four
or five parallel rows of trees, and inclosed by a
wall a few feet in height. Some nice houses are
situated in the street on either hand, from the bal-
conies of which the ladies looked at the gentlemen
below: and in particular there is, what the Spa-
niards call, a beaterio or make-believe nunnery on
I
MADEIRA* 23
the north side, the windows of which were literally
crammed full of the meek faces of some score pro-
bationers for single blessedness. There was not
a pretty girl amongst them. Beyond the Terreiro
you come to a neat market-place, and to a large
mass of building, which was formerly a convent of
Franciscans, I think ; half of it at present is convert-
ed into barracks and guard-rooms, and the rest is
still retained by the friars. Their church is uncom-
monly fine in its interior proportions, and must
have been very imposing in the days of its splen-
dour. Those days are gone. Dirt, silence, and
misery were conspicuous through ignorance and
superstition. The friars looked wretched, and one
poor fellow without shoes or shirt moved my com-
passion to that degree, that I conferred a pistorine
upon him. He seemed as grateful as if I had taught
him to read his breviary, which he confessed to me
he could not do. There was some time ago a
chapel here, as I understood it, entirely constructed
of human skulls, but upon inquiry I found it was
destroyed or removed.
The Portugueze ladies in Madeira never wash
their faces, and complain that the English destroy
their fine complexions by too much water. Dry
rubbing is the thing. If you intend to visit a female,
you send notice over night, and then she puts on her
corset and dresses herself as if for a ball. So you
meet them in the streets, lying in their palanquins,
24 MADEIRA.
with one pretty ancle hanging outside, and in rich
evening costume.
A man ought to have more phlegm in his consti-
tution than I have, to travel with serenity in Maderia.
When you intend to make an excursion, you send
a servant to the corner of the street to summon the
muleteers ; at the word, down they come scamper-
ing to your door, men and boys, horses, mules, and
ponies. Some friends of mine were going with me
to Cavalhar's villa, and the moment we put our
noses out of the court-yard, a regular fight began.
Three men laid hold of me by main force ; my left
leg was mounted on a mule, my right stretched
across a horse, and the bridle of a pony thrust into
my hand. I swore as became me, but unfortunately
for my influence in the world, I have such an ungo-
vernable tendency to laughter upon the most solemn
occasions, that all I could do or say excited neither
remorse or terror in these fellows. I succeeded at
length in righting myself and sheered off on the
horse. When we were well seated, the vara in
hand and all ready, u whoo !" whistled our natives ;
" whoo !' ? whistled all the natives in the neighbour-
hood ■; the muleteers caught hold of the^tails by
their left hands, and began to goad the flanks of the
animals with a small pike in their right; " Cara,
cara, cavache, caval," shouted they, which fairly
started us, and away we went at full gallop through
the pebble-paved streets, the horses kicking, the
MADEIRA. 25
hoofs clattering, the men singing and screaming and
goading, and the old women running out of our way
as fast as they could. I was so convulsed with
laughter at the unspeakable absurdity of the scene,
that I consider it a very great mercy that I neither
killed myself nor any body else. The roads too out
of the town are entirely poved causeways for horses
and palanquins, and to ascend them is well enough ;
but realy to ride down many parts of them is fright-
ful. If you attempt to keep a tight hand upon the
curb, the muleteer always pulls the reign slack with
a " Larga, Senhor ;" so that you must resign your-
self to your fate in patience. The certainty with
which the mules, ponies, and horses tread these
precipices is amazing; a fall upon the paved ways
is very rare. In returning indeed from the Corral,
a horse threw me like a shot between some sharp
masses of rock ; I was much shaken, but providen-
tially not materially bruised. The strength of the
muleteers and porters is very surprizing; they will
run thirty miles by your side with ease, helping
themselves on by the friendly horse-tails, and I re-
member two youths carrying a lady in a palanquin
to Dom Cavalhar's house, which is five or six
miles right up the breast of a very steep mountain,
and keeping ahead of our horses the whole way.
The palanquin is a neat cot with curtains and
pillows, swung from a single pole ; one bearer is in
front, the other behind, and the pole passes over the
26 MADEIRA.
left shoulder of one and the right of the other, and
they each have a staff placed at right angles under
the pole, upon which they rest the unoccupied arm
and preserve a steady balance.
We had a most delightful ramble about the
grounds of this celebrated villa ; and strolled
through avenues of green and golden oranges, and
gazed at the blue sea through a thousand openings
in the foliage. The house is very elegant, the
chapel classical, and the summer-house at a little
distance commands a most magnificent prospect of
the varied scenery below.
In returning more quietly through the town, I
saw that happen to others which had not happened
to me. Some of the midshipmen being on shore,
had been making themselves amends for spare living
and hard watching during the gale, as they had a
clear right to do : then they must ride, and were
started of course in the manner which I have de-
scribed. As the fortuitous concourse of atoms
would order it, at the angle of a street which they
were doubling they met the Bishop of Madeira in
his palanquin; the two foremost weathered him,
and bore away, the two hindmost came athwart
hawse upon his lordship, threw him upon his beam
ends, and themselves went down head foremost in
the mud. This had like to have been a sad busi-
ness with these young gentlemen, but Dom Frei
Joaquim de Menezes Ataide not being hurt, and
MADEIRA. 27
knowing the land privileges of His Majesty's naval
officers, hoped there was no limb broken, got into
his seat again, and wished them a good evening ;
which was very kind of the bishop, who is indeed
a good man and much respected in his diocese.*
* The name of the Bishop puts me in mind of his
protege the great poet of Madeira. Francisco de Paula
Medina e Vasconcellos has written an epic poem, enti-
tled Georgeida, the subject of which is the Peninsular
war. I recommend the book to Mr. Southey's notice,
if he is not already in possession of it. If the fame of
our soldiers does not survive to posterity, it will not be
for want of a bard. He speaks of the battle of Coruna
in this strain :
Memoravel Combate, ah ! tu das honra
A' Nac,ao Immortal, que doma os Mares.
Sim John Moore morreo, mas nao morrerao
A sua Gloria e Nome, que aos Vindouros
Encherao de prazer, e enthusiasmo.
Ah ! e quantos Heroes com seu exemplo
Por inclitas acgoes em ti brilharao !
Eu la vejo John Hope commandando
Em sua falta o Exercito Britanno
Com acerto, e valor ! Eu la diviso
Manningham, Beresford, Hill, Murray, Clinton,
Paget, Frazer, Nicolls, Which, Manuel, Fane,
Bentick, Warde, Leith, Crauford, Griffith, Miller,
Williams, Slade, Stanhope, Napier, Disney,
E outros muitos Heroes.
He is great on Talavera.
Verdade Augusta, Sacrosancta Diva,
Recorda me as Ac§6es maravilhosas
Dos preclaros Heroes, que a ferro e fo^o
Destrocarad os perfidos Francezes
Nos campos da famosa Talavera.
28 MADEIRA.
You must not fail to go and see Nossa Senhora
do Monte. It is the neatest church in the island,
and being situated on a terrace just half way up
the mountain's breast, commands one of the most
enchanting views in the world. If it be not your
creed to worship Our Lady, at all events you can
visit the good Vicar and his sister, a very amiable
pair, who will give you oranges and wine, and a
tune on the guitar, if you are fond of music.
The quintas or country residences of the Eng-
lish merchants are delightful, and it is a pretty
thing to spend a Madeiran afternoon in riding about
in good company from one to another. They start
you an exquisite luncheon of wines, oranges, and
grapes at each, and as you have only just gotten into
sunny climates you feel as if you could never be
satiated with such repasts. I effected four trifles of
this sort post meridiem, and one of Gordon's din-
ners at seyen, which is a serious affair.
No centro do confuso Laberinto,
Em que troao de Martq^horrendo as Iras,
XiNTao vistes Weilesley fiicomparavel
Por briihantes accoes semi-adeozar-se ?
E quantos outros por accoes pa&mosas
Se tornarao alii semi-divinos ! —
La vejo Campbell, Anson, Watson, Tilson,
Weltinghafib^Bathurst, Murray, Langworth, Payne.
Sherbrooke^ Fletcher, Gu&rd, Donnellan, Bunburg,
Cameron, Wilson, Becket, O'Lawlor, White,
Mackenzie, Cotton, Lyon, Bingham, Donkin,
E outros Britannos Inclitos Guerreiros.
MADEIRA. 29
The English chapel is an elegant and convenient
building, situated on the skirts of the town, and
literally embosomed in ever-springing roses and
snow-white daturas. It cost an unconscionable
sum of money, but the edifice and the liberal main-
tenance of a clergyman are an honour to the mer-
chants.
I called upon the Governor Dom Manoel de Por-
tugal, who has the credit of being a bastard-slip of
some one of the royal family. He is a little prim
gentleman, and talks French besides his vernacular.
The government house is much blocked up, but
there are two very fine state rooms in it, and from
the windows there is a lovely view of the sea.
But the great sight of Madeira, perhaps one of
the great sights of the world, is the awful Corral.
Those who have travelled, know how vexatious it
is to feel our utter inability to convey to a third
person an image of the things which have struck
ourselves with admiration ; I felt this and I feel it
now in all its painfulness, yet I must say in a few
words what the Corral is. A rode sixteen miles
into the interior of the island, the road was a steep
or gentle ascent the whole way, at first winding
under traceries of vines and amongst avenues of
oranges, but latterly broken and wild, and barely
distinguishable in the falleiv leaves under the groves
of. trees. At length we came out at the bottom of
a valley, on one side of which was a luxuriant car-
4
30 MADEIRA.
pet of heaths and furze, on the other a low wood?
and the ends closed iip with mountains covered with
a short grass, and impeded with countless masses of
granite and other stones lying about in singular con-
fusion. Our way lay over this hilly down, and
hard work it was to make any progress, though
our mules did their utmost to pick out a path
amongst the fragments. When I attained the top,
I absolutely started with terror, and so unexpected
Was the scene, that it was a minute or two before I
could steadily look at it. immediately before me
an enormous chasm opened of two miles or more
in length, about half a mile in breadth, and some
four thousand feet in depth. The bottom was a
narrow and level plain, with a river running through
it, and a nunnery with its church. Right opposite
to me the rocks rose as a wall, and shot upwards
into the sky in long tottering precipices ; the clouds
lay in motionless strata below me, but higher up
they were careering rapidly amongst the craggy
pinnacles, sometimes entirely burying them, then
showing a black islet emerging through them, and
sometimes sweeping off for a season and revealing
the whole stupendous mass piercing the blue hea-
vens. The ravine contracts at either end into an
acute angle, and a natural bridge or causeway forms
a communication for men arid mules going to San
Vicente ; beyond this another chasm, not so deep,
but broader, lies before you ; this closes partly at
MADEIRA. 31
the extremity, and through a small opening the sea
gleams in the distance. A friend of mine, who
knew Switzerland, said he had never seen any thing
in the Alpine country so wonderfully sublime as
this place. From this station we looked back
upon Funchal and distinctly made out the ships at
anchor in the bay. After we had wandered about
for some hours, we spread a capital cold dinner on
the grass, ate veal pye and turkey, and drank por-
ter and wine on the brink of the Corral. After we
had devoured as much as we could, we retired, and
the porters and muleteers turned to in our places,
and cleared decks so completely that, like iEsop,
they had nothing but empty bottles and baskets to
carry home on their shoulders.
Reader, if your whim or your necessities should
lead you to Madeira, go for my sake to the nunnery
of Santa Clara, It is at the western end of Fun-
chal, and you may buy there the prettiest flowers
for your sweetheart's hair, and the most ingenious
toys in wax that are in the world. The nuns sell
them very cheap, and all they get from you goes in
real charity to themselves or their pensioners.
Perhaps also you may see poor Maria, if she be not
dead ; if she comes speak to her very kindly, and
give my love to her ; — but you do not know me, or
poor Maria either.
Maria Clementina, the youngest child of Pedro
Agostinho, was born in Madeira. Her parents had
32 MADEIRA.
an unusually large family, and were labouring under
some embarrassment from the unfavourable termi-
nation of an important law-suit. What unfortunate
event coincided with her birth, I know not, but
Maria was disliked by her father and mother from
the first years of her infancy. Her brothers neg-
lected her in obedience to their parents, and her
sisters, who were very ugly, hated her for her
beauty. Every one else in Funchal and the neigh-
bourhood loved her, and she had many offers of
marriage at thirteen years of age, which the little
maiden laughed at and forwarded to her elder
sisters. The more she was petted abroad, the
more was she persecuted at home. She was treat-
ed at length like Cinderella, with no chance of a
fairy to help her. Amongst other arrangements
for the purchase of commissions for two of his
sons, and for giving portions to two of his daugh-
ters, Pedro Agostihho determined to sacrifice his
best and sweetest child Maria. At eighteen she
was placed as a novice in this nunnery, it nineteen
she took the veil and renounced the world for ever.
At this time she was the most beautiful girl in the
island, and, what is remarkable in a Portuguese, of
a fair complexion, with a brilliant colour, blue eyes,
and very long and glossy brown hair.
A year after this, the Constitutional Government
was established in Portugal, and one of the first and
wisest acts of the Cortes was to order the doors of
MADEIRA, 33
all religious houses to be thrown open. Santa
Clara was visited by friends and strangers, some to
see the church, some to see the garden, and some
to see the nuns. Amongst others a Portugueze
officer, at that time quartered in Funchal, saw and
fell in love with Maria ; he was a handsome youth,
of a good family, and Maria returned his love with
an earnestness which perhaps had as much a desire
of liberty as female passion in it. A nun is eman-
cipated from her parents, and the law declared the
vow of celibacy null and void. The marriage was
determined on, her hair permitted to grow again,
her clothes prepared, and the wedding-day fixed.
Maria fell ill, and the physician enjoined perfect
quiet for some time. The wedding was fatally
postponed to another day, and before that day arri-
ved, his Faithful Majesty had dissolved his parlia-
ment, and, fearful lest Heaven should lose one
more of its daughters, had revoked the law of the
Cortes, and dispatched an express to notify as much
to his subjects in Madeira. Maria arose from her
bed of sickness to return to her cell and her rosary ;
her lengthening ringlets were again mercilessly
shorn 5 the mob cap, the leathern corset, the serge
gown were laid before her, and some old Egyp-
tians, who could not better themselves elsewhere,
bade her return thanks to God that she had so nar-
rowly escaped mixing again in the vanities of the
world.
4*
34 MADElfeA.
Ori the 5th of January, a few hours before we
sailed from Madeira, I walked with a handsome
and very agreeable Englishwoman to visit Santa
Clara. I was very anxious to see Maria, whose
story I knew. After a little hesitation on the part
of two or three venerable ladies, who first present-
ed themselves at the great door of the house, Maria
was summoned. She came to us with a smiling
countenance, and kissed my companion repeatedly.
Her colour was gone, but she was still beautifully
fair, and the exquisite shape of her neck, and the
nobleness of her forehead were visible under the
disadvantage of a dress as ungraceful as was ever
invented for the purpose of mortifying female va-
nity. She spoke her language with that pretty
lisp which, I believe, the critics of Lisbon pro-
nounce to be a vicious peculiarity of the natives of
Madeira, but also with a correctness and an energy
that indicated a powerful and ingenuous mind. I
took half of a large bunch of violets which I had in
my hand and gave them to my friend to present
10 her. Flowers are a dialect of Portugueze which
is soon learnt. She took them, curtesied very low.
opened the folds of a muslin neck kerchief, and
dropped them loose on her snowy bosom.
The vesper bell sounded, the door was closed
between the nun and the world, but she beckoned
us to go into their church. We did so ; it is one
of the finest in the island, and very curiously lined
MADEIRA, 35
with a sort of porcelain ; attached to its western
end is the chapel of the nuns, and a double iron
grating to enable them to hear and participate in
the service of the mass. Maria came with some
flowers in her hand which she had been gathering
in the garden. She took four of them from the
rest, and gave them to me through the bars. " Sao
immortaes," said she; they were some common
everlastings.
" Que idade tem vm. senhora ?" said I.
" Vinte e hum annos !"
" E se chama— " I added.
" Maria/'
" E Clementina tambem ?"
" Sim, nos tempos passados."*
I leaned as close as I could and spoke a few
words in a low tone, which she did not seem to un-
derstand. "Nao entende," said I.t
" Sim, sim," interrupted Maria, " entendo bem ;
diga."
" Esta vm. feliz, senhora ?"$
The abbess, who was engaged with my com
* "How old are you?" " Twenty-one."
"And your name is — " " Maria." K
"And Clementina as we}l?" "Yes, in by gone
days."
j* "She does not understand."
J " Yes, yes, I understand Well ; speak." "Are you
happy, lady?"
mpa-
36 MADEIRA.
nion, turned her head, and Maria answered with an
air of gaiety, "O sim, muito feliz."*
I shook my head as in doubt. A minute elapsed,
and the abbess was occupied again. Maria put
her hands through the grating, took one of mine,
and made me feel a thin gold ring on her little fin-
ger, and then, pressing my hand closely, said, in an
accent which I still hear; " Nao, nao, nao ; tenho
dor do cora9ad."f
The service began ; the old nuns croaked like
frogs, and the young ones paced up and down,
round and about, in strange and fanciful figures,
chaunting as sweetly as caged Canary birds. 1
gazed at them for a long time with feelings that
cannot be told, and when it was time to go, I caught
Maria's eye, and made her a slight but earnest
bow. She dropped a curtesy which seemed a ge-
nuflection to her neighbour, raised a violet behind
her service-book to her mouth, held it, looked at it,
and kissed it in token of an eternal farewell.
1 wish to know whether there would have been
any harm in my accepting the captain's offer of
his coxswain and gig's crew, and running away
with Maria Clementina. The thing was perfectly
easy, as we all agreed at the time ; at the principal
door there was no grating, and in the court none
* " yes, very happy."
| " No, no, no ; I have the heart-ache."
MADEIRA. 37
but maimed or decrepit persons ; three men should
stand at the outer gate and prevent any egress till
we had brought our prize down to the Loo Rock :
in a quarter of an hour we should be on board a
man of war, and even if they had taken the alarm
and fired from the battery, it is perfectly well known
that the Portugueze government never allows more
than one half of the due charge of powder to its
artillery, and so we might have laughed at their
impotent attempts. But what could I have done
with my nun ? Her lover was, heaven knows where,
and as to conjugating myself, although Maria was
a very lovely girl, I happen to have my hands quite
full for the present. So God bless thee, and again
in very sorrow I say, God bless thee infinitely,
sweet and unfortunate Madeiran ! If 1 were a Tory,
as sure I am not, 1 would pray the Cortes might
get on their legs again, if it were only to let thee
out of thy prison.
CROSSING THE TROPIC
About six in the evening of the 17th of January,
a sail was discovered to windward on the larboard
bow. Shortly afterwards the man on the fore-top
gallant yard saw that she was making towards us
on the other tack. There seemed to be something
mysterious in the appearance of this sail and the
course she was keeping; unless she came from
Sierra Leone, no one could imagine what she was.
The captain eyed her with his glass ; she was under
courses and top-sails, with her jibs flying, and a
broad pendant at the mast head. Yet she made no
signal, and was nearing us fast.
The sun went down into the sea as a great palpa-
ble sphere of flame, and the stars came out as stars
only come out over the bosom of the central Atlan-
tic. I had been hanging over the windward gang-
way,* and gazing on the sea till my eyes swam ; and
methought a fair and languid shape rose ever and
anon between the foamy crests of the purple waves,
* But I recommend no one to follow my example ;
the draft is very great, and is sure to develope any rheu-
matic tendencies you may accidentally possess.
CROSSING THE TROPIC. 39
looking Eugenia at me, and beckoning and speak-
ing, though I could not hear, and pointing down
to ocean, and then long and steadily to heaven,
whereat I trembled and sighed, and fears and suspi-
cious fancies, and thoughts of dead things, and
musings of preternatural agencies, absorbed my
senses, when on a sudden a tremendous conch
roar, issuing from under the bows of the ship,
startled me from my reverie. It was eight o'clock,
and a hoarse piratical Atlantic voice hailed us and
demanded who we were; the captain answered
with his hat off, for it seems he had been on the
station before and recognized the awful sound, and
having told our name and other log-book particulars,
concluded, by requesting His Majesty to come on
board. Neptune, for it now appeared to be indeed
no other than this awful personage, replied that he
could not leave his car that night, but he would
visit us the next morning. He said ; the conchs
Tritonian sounded again, the god rushed by in a
flaming chariot like unto a tar barrel, which the
sailor heaves upon the forecastle, what time he tars
the newly twisted yarn ; and from yards and masts,
main-top, top-gallant and royal, down came an ava-
lanche of water, which laid some dozen of unwary
mariners sprawling in an inundation of Neptunian
ichor.
At nine the next morning the king came in
through one of the bridle ports. He was seated on
40 CROSSING THE TROPIC.
what men would have supppsed to he a gun-car-
riage, and drawn by four marine monsters. Am-
phitritty was by his side, and their only child, the
heir of the sea, was in her arms. The king was
crowned with Atlantic water-flowers, and he bore
in his hand the trident which sailors have imitated
in the common grange. He was preceded by gix
Tritons, whom I had so often wished to see and
hear after reading Wordsworth's sonnet,* and Mer-
cury came with wings, caduceus and a scroll under
his arm. A white bear, who seemed to have come
from Regent's Inlet on an iceberg, which melted in
latitude 50° and left him to shift for himself, acted
as body guard, and another troop of Tritons closed
the cavalcade. We all took off our hats; civil
things passed between Neptune and the captain;
the man complained that the trades were kept too
far to the south now, and the god declared that as
he travelled by steam himself, he was wholly una-
ware of the fact, but that he would order them up
forthwith ; and then he desired all his children, who
had not entered his kingdom's capital province be-
fore, to listen to his public crier, and willingly do
accordingly. While I was giving the bear cake to
eat, JVJercury read an oration, some parts of which
were hermetically sealed from my comprehension :
however, he urged us to admire Amphitritty, a
.* " The world is too much with us — "
CROSSING THE TROPIC. 41
woman, as he assured us, as remarkable for the
hamiableness of her disposition, as, we saw, she
was for the helegancy of her person. He finished
by repeating to us youngsters those three invalua-
ble maxims which will carry a man safe through
the world.
1. Never heave any thing to windward except
hot water and ashes.
2. Never drink small beer when you can get
strong, unless you like small beer better.
3. Never kiss the maid when you may kiss the
mistress, unless, as aforesaid, you happen to like
kissing the maid better.
The pageant passed off; but two water-bailiffs
came and tapped me on the shoulder, with a
;i You're wanted." It made me think of my debts.
They wished to blindfold me, but I was deter-
mined to be shaved, like Ney, with my eyes wide
open. As I walked slowly to the forecastle I was
considerably washed by a dozen buckets of water
sent down upon me from the main top and yard ;
then 1 mounted the ladder; at the top stood the
doctor on one side and the barber on the other ;
the medical man felt my purse, said it fluttered a
little, and gave me a saline draught from an eau de
Cologne bottle, and gently pushed me into a deep
purse bag half full of water. Thrice 1 essayed to
get out; thrice the pensile sail tripped me up, and
Beajr. ungrateful Bear, who was rolling about at
5
42 CROSSING THE TROPIC.
the bottom, caught me in an amarous hug, and
dallied with me in his tarry palms. At last I
doubled him up with a smashing hit in the wind,
stood upon him and clambered out, knocked down
the shaver, and ran through a Niagara of water to
my cabin.
After this, Ducking began in all its forms, under
every possible modification of splashing and im-
mersion. There was the Duck courteous, the
Duck oblique, the Duck direct, the Duck up-
right, the Duck downright, the bucket Duck, the
tub Duck, the shower Duck, and the Duck and
Drake.
" There was water, water everywhere,
And not a drop to drink."
A fine water-piece.
But Neptune sent the trades. Full on our lar-
board quarter did they blow, every sail was set.
the flying fish glided by us, bonitos and albicores
played round the bows, dolphins gleamed in our
wake, ever and anon a shark, and once a great
emerald-coloured whale kept us company, till, on
the morning of the 29th of January, we made the
green shores of Barbados, and cast our anchor in
Carlisle Ban
BARBADOS
How a man's heart swells within him, when, after
sea and sky and sky and sea for nearly a month, he
first sees the kindly land beckon to him over the
salt waves! And that land tropical! Carlisle Bay
sleeping like an infant, and countenanced like the
sky on a June morning, the warrior pendants, the
merchant signals, the graceful gleaming boats, the
dark sailors, the circling town, the silver strand
and the long shrouding avenues of immortal palms
greenly fringing the blue ocean! It is a beautiful
scene in itself, but thrice beautiful is it to the weary
mariner who deeply feels that land was made for
him.
I was present when the first Protestant bishop
arrived in the bay, and the landing was a spectacle
which I shall not easily forget. The ships of war
were dressed and their yards manned, and salutes
fired; this was pretty and common; but such a
sight as the Carenage presented very few have ever
witnessed. On the quay, on the mole, on boats,
on posts, on house tops, through doors and win-
dows, wherever a human foot could stand, was one
44
BARBADOS.
appalling mass of black faces. As the barge pass-
ed slowly along, the emotions of the multitude
were absolutely tremendous ; they threw up their
arms and waved their handkerchiefs, they danced,
and jumped, and rolled on the ground, they sung
and screamed and shouted and roared, till the
whole surface of the place seemed to be one huge
grin of delight. Then they broke out into a thou-
sand wild exclamations of joy and passionate con-
gratulations, uttered with such vehemence that,
new as It was then to me, it made me tremble ; till
I was somewhat restored by a chorus of negro girls,
— "De Bissop is come : De Bissop is come! He is
coming to marry us, coming to- marry us, coming to
marry us all P 5
Barbados is the most ancient colony in the Bri-
tish Empire. It has never changed hands, and
been invaded once only by the forces of the Long
Parliament. It was the asylum for the royalists.
as Jamaica afterwards became for the republicans.
Many of the present families are lineally descend-
ed from the original planters, and the estates bear
names which may be found in Ligon and the early
memorialists of the Island. It is generally level,
except in the north-eastern quarter, called Scot-
land, where the highest land is about 1,100 feet
from the sea. The soil for the most part is a thin
superficies, upon a mass of coralline rag, which
protrudes through it, wherever there is an angle ov
s
BARBADOS. 45
a fissure, and so very precious is the mould, that
means are usually taken at the bottom of shelving
fields to prevent its being carried away by the tor-
rents in the rainy season. Barbados is without
that central accumulation of hills which is almost
universal in the other Antilles, and I should there-
fore doubt its being of volcanic formation. It is
considered to be exhausted, and manure is as ne-
cessary as in England. Under these circumstances
it is astonishing to see the amount of the produc-
tion. The island is something less than the Isle of
Wight; it exports at an average upwards of 314.-
000 cwts. of sugar annually, besides poultry to the
Leeward colonies; it contains about 110,000 souls,
who find their means of subsistence upon that part
of the residue of the soil which is not occupied by
woods, and they import only flour and salt fish from
North America in no very considerable quantities.
Yet it is notorious that the negroes live here much
better than in any other colony, and they increase
in numbers every year.
Bridge Town lies round the bay, is nearly two
miles in length, scarcely half a mile in breadth, and
contains upwards of 20,000 inhabitants. There
are some handsome houses in it, and many which
are very convenient within, but the want of our
shop windows, and the extreme irregularity of the
buildings, take away all appearance of splendour.
There is a square or open place with a good statue
5*
46 BARBADOS-
of Nelson, a great favourite in the West Indies, in
the centre, and one or two large chemists' shops on
the sides, which are always the most respectable in
look of any in West Indian towns. The Cathedral
is large and plain, with a tower just raised above
the roof; for the Barbadians have the fear of hur-
ricanes so constantly before their eyes, that they
seem to have thought a tower twenty feet high a
kind of provoking of Providence. Hence most
I of the churches look like our methodist meeting-
houses, which is an exceedingly unpleasant associa-
tion to a man of ordinary taste. The foundation
of another church has now been laid in an open
space in a distant part of the town, which, though
not quite so capacious, will be a much more elegant
building than the cathedral. Heaven also is to be
tempted by a reasonable tower erected thereon.
One great advantage may be expected from this
undertaking, by the people having ocular demon-
stration of the superior convenience of the new
mode of pewing over the huge inclosures, which at
present render three fifths of the area of a West
Indian church useless. There are two literary
societies in the town, which consist of all the lead-
ing persons in the colony, have good libraries, and
give four times per annum very luculent dinners,
whereof once and again, but of that at another
time. There is also an agricultural society, and
one or two commercial rooms. Beyond the cathe-
BARBADOS. 47
dral is the King's house, which belongs to the com^
mander of the forces on the station, and half a mile
farther on in the country, the Government house.
At the southern extremity of the town is the garri-
son of St. Ann's, the barracks of which are large
and spacious buildings with covered galleries run-
ning round them, and the parade is one of the
finest I ever saw.
His Majesty's council, the general assembly, the
judges, the juries, the debtors and the felons, all live
together in the same house. It is a large one, with
an open space around it, and inclosed by a wall.
With whom the mere right to the tenement is, I
could not learn ; whether the legislature lends it to
the judicature, or whether both are only tenants at
will to the worshipful company of debtors and
rogues, is a point not clearly ascertained. I am
inclined however to think that the latter gentlemen
have the title-deeds, form observing that they inva-
riably do the honors of the house to all the rest.
Their civility is unbounded ; they help you out of
your carriage and hold your horse and your stirrup,
they line the staircase on either side in token of
respect to you, show you through their apartment?,
and are forward to give you every piece of infor-
mation which the most expert cicerone can furnish.
Their loyalty is without suspicion ; in sign whereof,
they turn out of their best bedroom to make way
for a session of the council, and their civic patriot-
48 BARBADOS.
ism is as clear, from the interest they display in the
public debates — the men, the women and the chil-
dren crowding inquisitively round the open door of
the council, and lounging in the gallery, or leaning
familiarly over the rails in the hall of the assembly.
These are their virtues ; a few failings they have,
such as the habit of not returning any thing left in
their house, an appetency after the contents of a
stranger's coat pocket, and a somewhat too profuse
employment of the imprecatory part of the Barba-
dian dialect. But seriously it is scarcely consistent
with the dignity of the most ancient, most loyal,
and most windward colony in the West Indies to
join their House of Lords, St. Stephen's, Westmin-
ster Hall, Newgate and Marshalsea all in one ;
recte dividere is a great matter in building houses
as in arguing cases, and it might be well to consider
how far familiarity, even with personages of such
high character, may not breed something like con-
tempt. If I sit down to dinner with a professed
scoundrel, he absorbs a portion of my good charac-
ter, and I receive a like portion of his bad one, till
an equilibrium having taken place, we both rise in
the opinion of by-standers, a couple of scoundrels
together.
In truth this jail, like every other in the West
Indies except those in Port of Spain and Kings-
town, is infamous. It would not cost £200 a year
to reform it. Some sort of classification should be
BARBADOS.
40
enforced, such as of debtors, felons and women ; no
intercourse between these several divisions, or be-
tween any of them and the town, should upon any
account be allowed ; a very deserving young cler-
gyman of the name of Packer has already been
appointed at the earnest instances of the bishop to
attend to the prisoners ; regular visitations of magis-
trates should be established, and above all a capa-
cious tread-wheel should be forthwith erected.
The money laid out on this sovereign machine
would be saved in the first year by the reduction of
the usual jail expenses. Herbert or White would
make the article of pitch pine, and it is almost im-
possible to set bounds to the improvement, which
might be expected to take place in the public cha-
racter under the mild influence of this blessed in-
vention. The fact is, the thing is found to answer
exceedingly well in Trinidad, and Barbados would
be the better for following the example.
There are three other towns in the island. Hole
town is a collection of five or six houses on the sea
shore about seven miles from the capital, and is
remarkable only for having been the first settlement
of the English, who landed in the neighbourhood,
and called their hamlet James Town, in honour of
the first Stuart. Speight's town or Spikes, as it is
commonly pronounced, is a pretty large place,
seven miles farther on the coast ; it has a roadstead
and wharf, and formerly exported a great deal of
50 BARBADOS.
sugar directly to England, but the usual practice
now is to send it by droghers or small cutters to
Carlisle bay. There is a daily communication by
water between Speights and Bridge Town ; it is
a very beautiful excursion, and the wind rarely
fails either way. The population of the place is
colored in a very large proportion, and you may
walk some time in the street before you will meet
a white or black man or woman. The church is
very neat, but the pulpit is a fathom too high, a
common fault in the West Indies, where they fancy,
the higher the preacher is placed, the more sublime
will the sermon be. To be sure, by this arrange-
ment every class of persons must of necessity un-
derstand the clergyman, which is something at all
events. The view from Dover Hill, a fortress and
signal station, half a mile from the town, is very
interesting. The houses are nearly lost in the
foliage of gardens, and the almost painted sea shines
in still sky-blue between the slender stems of the
thousands of cocoa nut trees, which fornix a green
fence upon the shore. One great inconvenience
in travelling along the leeward side of the island is
the sand, which especially in Speights is so deep,
that a heavy carriage is sure to stick fast in it.
What with the whiteness of this sand, and the shelv-
ing tables of land to the east which keep off ever}
breath of wind, it is one of the most oppressive
rides in Barbados. I thought it would have given
BARBADOS. 51
me the ophthalmia. As you pass along, you see the
remnants of old forts at very short intervals, with a
great number of guns, most of them honeycombed,
dismounted, or even half buried in the earth. The
other town is called Oistin's or Austin's, not from
St. Augustin, but from a certain lewd fellow of the
name who lived here and loved rum and a main of
cocks dearly. It is a few miles to windward of
Bridge Town, and of that magnitude that my Lord
Seaforth, upon first visiting it, turned round to his
aides-de-camp, and said — u Gentlemen, keep close !
or I shall be out of the town before you are in it."
The central school is a large and convenient
building nearly opposite the king's house, and
within two minutes walk of the cathedral. It is
impossible to speak in too high terms of this excel-
lent institution, which reflects upon Lord Comber-
mere who promoted, and the legislature which
liberally seconded the undertaking, the utmost cre-
dit. At present about 160 white children are
educated here, precisely upon the plan of the
national schools in England; all of them are fed
during the day, and the major part are well lodged.
The beneficial effects of this charity are already
confessed on all hands ; principles of sobriety and
devotion are instilled into their minds, and habits of
regularity and peaceful subordination are enforced.
From this class of boys, the master tradesman, me-
chanics, overseers and even managers will hereafter
52 BARBADOS.
be supplied ; and when it is considered how muqh
the comforts and improvement of the slaves must
depend upon the characters of these persons, their
education will be found to be, as it really is, a direct
measure of general amelioration. The foundation
of another school in the neighbourhood has also
been laid by the bishop, which is to be devoted en-
tirely to girls, who are to be thus separated from
the boys, and boarded and lodged by themselves.
It is but common justice to say that these are
favourite institutions, and that the chief people of
the colony, male and female, spare neither pains or
expense in maintaining and strengthening them.
There is a large school of coloured children,
chiefly free, in the town, which was formerly sup-
ported by the Church Missionary Society, but has
since been put by the coloured managers of it
entirely under the bishop's superintendence. The
children are very well behaved, very docile, very
sensible of the advantages which they acquire by a
system of methodical instruction ; and the actual
difference between them and their untaught bre-
thren of the same colour and sometimes same con-
dition would convince any unprejudiced witness,
that it is not to emancipation but to education that
the sincere philanthropist ought to direct his pre-
sent labours. Four more schools have been opened
by the indefatigable bishop for boys and girls re-
spectively ; they are maintained at the expense of
BARBADOS. 53
government; any colour is admitted upon the sim-
ple condition of cleanliness and constant attendance,
and the instruction is gratuitous. These schools
are scattered about in the parts of the town princi-
pally inhabited by the coloured people, who are by
these means more readily induced to send their
children. These children are chiefly of the lowest
order of the free coloured and of the domestic and
mechanic slaves in Bridge Town and the immediate
vicinity. They are not at present taught to write,
a point certainly not of any vital importance, and
wisely conceded to prejudices which will in due
time melt away under a conviction of the propriety
of the knowledge and the futility of the prohibition.
Codrington College is romantically situated on
the borders of the Barbadian Scotland ; a steep cliff
rises on one side of it, from the foot of which an
avenue of magnificent cabbage trees leads up to the
lawn in front of the building, and on the other side
the ground gradually slopes away to some small
rocks over the sea. No position could have been
more convenient in every respect; it is retired,
possesses a running stream of water, and is ever
refreshed by the virgin breezes of the Atlantic.
The original plan of the edifice was quadrangular
or perhaps oblong ; it actually consists of nothing
but one of the long sides and slight projections of
two others. It is an exceedingly massive affair,
and seems hurricane and earthquake proof. An
6
54 BARBADOS.
open archway, as at King's College, Cambridge,
corresponds, in the centre of the building, with the
head of the avenue. It contains a large school-
room with a niche, where the statue of Codrington
ought certainly to be placed, a chapel very much
out of order, a library with a few good books and
plenty of rubbish, and spacious accommodations for
sleeping up stairs. The Principal's lodge is on the
same line, but detached from the college, and is
without doubt one of the most delectable houses in
the Antilles.
This institution, though at present all but useless,
may be made the foundation and instrument of a
great and lasting change in the entire West Indies.
That it was originally intended as an university for
youths and not a mere school for boys is evident,
from the terms of the founder's will, and it is in this
light alone, and with a view of commencing and
ultimately perfecting this character of it, that it
deserves the most serious attention of the trustees,
the insular legislatures, and even the government at
home. It is quite monstrous that the object of so
magnificent a charity, and such large actual funds,
should be the support and instruction of fourteen or
fifteen boys, who might be educated much better
elsewhere in the island. If the colony were want-
ing in schools which it is not, still the college would
be a very objectionable school from various causes
connected with the mode of maintenance, and the
BARBADOS. 55
contact with slaves ; which it is not necessary to
specify here ; but in reality, as a school, the college
is lost for all great purposes of improvement ; it
may or may not exist without affecting the state of
society in the smallest degree ; what is done there
is not done well, and yet done at an enormous
expense. As good colonial Latin and Greek, as
far as Virgil and the Analecta Minora, and much
better manners may be more cheaply taught in
other parts of the island; and the support of the
boys from the funds of the foundation is an unne-
cessary and therefore improper act of charity.
A great desideratum in the West Indies is a place
of study and retirement for young men. As it is,
those, who cannot afford the heavy expense of
going to Oxford or Cambridge, are obliged to break
off the unfinished work of instruction, to set up at
seventeen or eighteen for men, and undertake the
charge of duties for which they are utterly unquali-
fied. They come away from school rlalf educated
in heart and intellect, and are then for the most
part placed in situations, where every temptation
to licentiousness besets their path, and many dan-
gerous privileges are of necessity committed to
their discretionary exercise. With regard to the
wants of the church, the deficiency is still more
severely felt ; the present plan of general improve-
ment demands such a number of well informed
youths as catechists or clergymen, as the islands
56 BARBADOS.
under the actual system of things cannot supply :
hence the necessity of bringing men from England,
who are of course wholly unacquainted with the
peculiar condition of the society in the midst of
which they are to labour, or of employing in very
difficult enterprizes persons who at the best per-
haps have nothing but their good intentions to
recommend them. If the interval between seven-
teen and twenty-three is hazardous in this country*
what must it be in the West Indies, where there
exists no retreat from the seductions of awakening
passion, no scope or aid for the development of the
higher and more latent powers of the human mind.
A college upon the plan of an university, that is
to say, where a reasonable approach to universality
of instruction is proposed, would supply this defi-
ciency, remedy the consequent evils, and be a bless-
ing and a source of blessings to the colonies. Its
hall and lectures should be thrown open to every
white resident in the British West Indies; for their
rooms and commons the students should of course
pay, and the surplus funds of the charity should be
laid out in the erection of fellowships, in salaries to
professors, and prizes for youthful talent. Tutors
of real zeal and undoubted ability should be provi-
ded at all events, and the Principal should be a man
of that nerve and judgment which will be requisite
in governing and defending a great and novel insti-
tution. The domestic economy of the college
BARBADOS. O /
would be on a much simpler and less expensive
plan than in our universities ; less than half of
what is now spent by the Creoles in travelling or
idleness would decently maintain them, and I am
convinced that want of money would never be any
impediment to the full consummation of the pro-
ject. The bishop, as visitor, should be made avail-
able in the way of superintendence, and perhaps
order be taken in the proper quarters for license
and authority to confer the usual academical
degrees.
The trustees of Codrington College comprise a
a large portion of the learning and virtue of Eng-
land ; their disinterestedness is perfect ; theirinten-
tions excellent, their care commendable. Their
disposable funds are ample, and the trust estates
remarkably flourishing. They deserve this pros-
perity ; their zeal for the welfare of their slaves is
most exemplary, and they have gone to the utmost
bounds of prudence in advancing the condition of
those negros whose happiness and salvation have
been committed to them. A chapel and a school
have been erected almost exclusively for their use,
and a clergyman* fixed amongst them whose talents,
kindness and simplicity of manners are not more
remarkable than his judgment and his jpiety. The
attorney and manager are both of established cha-
* The Rev. John H. Pinder.
6*
58 BARBADOS*
racter, the buildings, especially the hospital, in good
order, and the negro huts comfortable. Under
these circumstances, and with these means in their
possession, the trustees incur a heavy responsi-
bility ; they have indeed a perfect right to assume
the power of providing in a Christian manner for
slaves in a Christian land, and they should treat all
malignant insinuations of breach of trust, with a
righteous scorn ; but they must at the same time
remember that the object of the charity is to edu-
cate the whites, and let not them or the public think
this object exclusive of the other ; so far from it, !
am convinced that one of the most effectual mea-
sures for bettering the slaves would be a thorough
and humanizing education of the masters them-
selves. Towards the attainment of this most desi-
rable end, not only in Barbados, but ultimately
throughout the whole British West Indies, no man,
or society of men, possesses so great means as the
trustees of this institution, not merely from large
and unfettered funds, but also from superior know-
ledge and freedom from prejudice. In all the
widely extended operations of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, there is
no instrument so ready, so safe, so prolific of future
good as this college is, or may be made to be ; and
without pretending to dictate to, or even admonish,
the members of that venerable body, I cannot re-
frain from exhorting them most earnestly to draw
BARBADOS. 59
this object closer to them than heretofore, and exa-
mine with hope and faith into its capabilities of
perfection.
There are eleven churches in Barbados, one
large chapel, called All Saints, the chapel in the
College, and the above mentioned chapel on the
Society's estate ; a new church is now building in
Bridge Town, and all these are in a very respecta-
ble preservation. Another place of worship is still
much wanted in the southern quarter of the town
called the Bay, and one even more so in the sea-
side parts of St. Philip's parish. That there should
be no church for the garrison, with an establish-
ment of not less than two thousand persons of one
sort or another, is a disgraceful circumstance, which
it is to be hoped the proper department at home
will not suffer to remain much longer. As it is, 1
trust it is no calumny, or even a great reflection, to
say, that the military, ladies and all are forced to
live without any observance of any religious wor-
ship whatever. The reading of a few prayers in
the open parade ground by the chaplain is really a
complete farce, and so understood to be.
TRINIDAD.
After about seven weeks residence in Barbados,
I had the pleasure of accompanying the new bishop
in his first visitation of his diocese. We were ac-
commodated in the most comfortable manner by
Captain Lawrence of H. M. S. Eden, sloop of
war, and set sail for the south on Tuesday evening
the 22d of March, We sighted Tobago on the
larboard beam on the 24th, and were so baffled by
light heading winds that we did not make the land
of Trinidad till the afternoon of the 25th. The
full moon was shooting a wild and lustrous glare
through the crevices of a black mass of clouds,
which hung half way down the mountains of the
Main, when we sailed with a fresh breeze through
the Boca Grande into the beautiful gulf of Paria.
This passage is about four or five miles wide, and
as I gazed with intense interest for the first time
upon the shores of South America, I could not help
thinking that the fitful glare and the dark atmo-
sphere formed together an impressive emblem of
the present state of that mighty continent. " May
thy darkness, 15 I murmured, "thy moral and reli-
TRINIDAD. 61
gious darkness pass away from thee, and light, and
truth, and freedom, shine around thee hereafter in
pure and unbroken splendour." -
The Sensual and the Dark rebel in vain,
Slaves by their own compulsion.
We anchored that night at a little distance from
the north of Chaguaramus Bay, memorable as the
scene of the capture of the island by Sir Ralph
Abercrombie. Hereupon they tell the following
story in Port of Spain. Admiral Apodaca, having
with great gallantry burnt all his own ships except
one 74, rode off to the town as fast as his horse
would carry him, and himself announced the event
to the astonished governor Chacon. "Only one
ship has fallen into the enemy's hands ! I have
burnt the rest," said the admiral : " Burnt ! burnt V 1
replied the governor; "but have you saved no-
thing?" "Si, Senor," exclaimed Apodaca with
Castilian enthusiasm, " I have saved Santiago de
Oompostella !"
et ostendit signum fatale Jacobi.
It is a fact that the excellent Chacon was dis-
graced, and the scoundrel Admiral, whom the Spa-
nish government ought to have requested the Eng-
lish to shoot on the quarter deck of the only ship
which he could not destroy, was eventually pro-
moted.
We weighed anchor with the morning breeze,
62 TRINIDAD*
and stood down gently before its refreshing breath
to the modern capital of the colony. I shall not
be weak enough to attempt a detailed description
of the enchanting scenery which presented itself
to us ; nothing but painting could hope even faintly
to convey an image of it to the inhabitants of the
Temperate Zone. Its parts may be just mention-
ed, and the imaginations of my readers may com-
bine and colour them as they please, sure that, let
them conceive as deeply and as richly as they may,
they will never attain to an adequate notion of the
unspeakable loveliness of the original. The Gulf
of the purest ultramarine, just wreathed into a
smile and no more ; on the right hand the moun-
tains of Cumana with their summits lost in the
clouds; on the left the immense precipices of Tri-
nidad covered to the extremest height with gigantic
trees which seemed to swim in the middle ether;
the margin fringed with the evergreen mangroves,
which were here hanging with their branches bathed
in the water, and there themselves rising out of the
midst of the soft waves ; behind us the four mouths
of the Dragon of Columbus with the verdant crag-
gy isles between them : before us Port of Spain
with its beautiful churches, the great Savana, and
the closing hills of Montserrat. Meanwhile the
Eden gracefully bent beneath the freshening wind,
{no other ship should ever sail on this lajce of
Paradise ;) the long dark canoes glanced by us with
TRINIDAD. 63
(heir white sails almost kissing the sea, and enor-
mous whales ever and anon lifted their monstrous
bodies quite out of the water in strange gambols,
and falling down created a tempest around them,
and shot up columns of silver foam. We came to
anchor two miles from shore, and had a boat race
in the evening.
Port of Spain is by far the finest town I saw in
the West Indies. The streets are wide, long, and
laid out at right angles ; no house is now allowed
to be built of wood, and no erection of any sort
can be made except in a prescribed line. There
is a public walk embowered in trees and similar in
all respects to the Terreiro in Funchal, and a spa-
cious market place with a market house or sham-
bles in excellent order and cleanliness. The Spa-
nish and French females, their gay costume, their
foreign language, and their unusual vivacity gives
this market the appearance of a merry fair in
France. The protestant church is beautifully situ-
ated, with a large inclosed lawn in front of it, which
is surrounded on two sides by the best houses in
thc ( town. The church itself is one of the most
elegant and splendid things in the empire; it is
wainscotted with the various rich woods of the
island, and the pews are arranged with not more
regularity than with a liberal consideration of the
feelings of the coloured people. These last sit in
the area towards the western end, and the differance
64 TRINIDAD.
of their accommodation from that of the whites is
scarcely perceptible. This circumstance is credit-
able to the colony, and might well be imitated in
some other of the islands. There are no aisles,
the roof sweeping in an elliptical arch from side to
side ; the altar, the western door, the organ and
staircase, are all in a corresponding style of rich-
ness and propriety. It is more worthy of the town,
as it now is ; it will be fit for it when it has become
a city. When viewed from without it seems to
want height, and though they say it cannot be better
than it is, I must own I think the coup d' ceil of the
building and Port of Spain itself would be much
improved by a greater elevation of the tower.
There would be no impiety in such a thing here as
in Barbados^ for the hurricanes have never ventured
so low as Trinidad.* In another part of the town
is an unfinished church for the Romanists ; there is
no roof as yet, but what is perfected is of even a
still more costly and exquisite character than our
own. The lateral walls certainly appear too thin
to be able to support any weight laid upon them,
but Abbe Legoffe has no fears on that head, and the
facetious Abbe is a competent judge. At present
the Romish service is enacted in a very rude chapel
of wood, from which they are obliged during Lent
* I regret exceedingly to hear that earthquakes have
visited this island, and that serious injury has been done
to tins church and the government house.
TRINIDAD. 65
to extend awnings into the street to afford a tempo-
rary receptacle for the worshippers who crowd in
from the country.
St. Anne's, the residence of Sir Ralph Wood-
ford, stands on a very gentle slope about half a
mile from the town ; the mountain forests rise
almost immediately behind it, whilst the lawn and
shrubbery give much of an English air to the whole
place. There are some rare and valuable plants
here, introduced by the governor, such as the nut-
meg, which was flourishing in great vigour, the cin-
namon and the clove. The nutmeg is a tree, and
uncommonly beautiful ; the others were bushes.
The house, though plain, is beyond measure com-
fortable, and it will be some time before I forget
the luxury of its matchless bath. The town, the
church and the gulf lie in sight, and within a mile
is the entrance of the famous valley of Maraval,
and still farther on the coast the less celebrated but
beautiful vale of Diego Martin with its single silk-
cotton tree* prevailing over it in desolate majesty.
I hope that noble ornament of the place will never
be cut down ; it is but one, and let it remain amidst
the softer cultivation around it, to show hereafter
what harvests the earth once bore upon its bosom
there. At about twenty feet from the ground the
trunk of the silk-cotton tree diverges into buttresses
* Bombax Ceiba.
7
66 TRINIDAD.
of great prominence and size, so that if a covering
were thrown over them, a very tolerable set of bar-
racks might be organized for one man each round
the enormous stem.
I love to recollect the days which I 'spent in Tri-
nidad, and would fain record some of their events
whilst the impressions which they made are stilt
fresh upon my mind. Gentle reader, whilst thou
pokest thy coal fire, and cleavest to the grate as if
Satan were at thy back, think, O ! think of the
mercury at 94° of Fahrenheit.
On a morning of such a temper, the elixir cup of
coffee being first duly quaffed, we, that is to say, the
governor, the bishop, his lordship's two chaplains,
your poor book-maker and an honest man, Sainthill
by name, started in landau and four, and in gig and
one for La Pastora the residence of Antonio Gomez.
And first we stopped at the governor's grog shop,
the trivial name of a crystal spring which has been
taught to gush forth from a rock on the way-side
into a neat stone bason, whereat under the shade of
a spreading evergreen the dark ladies of the country
rejoice to lave their dusty feet^ and indue the snowy
stocking and the coloured shoe or ever they enter
the gallant streets of Puerto de Espana. Then we
rambled on between hedges and trees, now in lanes
and now in roads, leaving the little village of San
Juan on the right, and crossing many a clear and
brawling brook till we arrived, well toasted, at the
sweet spot where we were to breakfast.
TRINIDAD. 67
Antonio Gomez' plantation of cacao is one of the
finest in the island. It lies on a very slight declivity
at the bottom of a romantic amphitheatre of woody
mountains. His house, together with the works of
the estate, is situated at the edge of the trees, and a
quieter or more lovely spot no hermit ever chose
to count his beads in for eternity ! The cacao,
which grows from ten to fifteen feet in height, is a
delicate plant, and like a lady, cannot bear expo-
sure to the direct rays of the sun; for this reason a
certain portion of the wood is thinned and appro-
priated, the tall and umbrageous trees are left, and
these form with their interwoven branches and
evergreen leaves a sun-proof skreen, under cover of
which the cacao flourishes in luxuriance and pre-
serves her complexion. At a distance the planta-
tion has the appearance of a forest advantageously
distinguished by the long bare stems of tropic growth
being shrouded with the rich green of the cacaos
below, and here and there burning and flashing with
the flame-coloured foliage of the glorious Bois Im-
mortel. One main road led through the plantation,
and numberless avenues diverged from it to every
other part. These alleys, as well as the whole
plantation itself, were fringed with coffee bushes,
which with their dark Portugal laurel leaves, jasmine
blossoms and most subtle and exquisite perfume re-
freshed the senses and delighted the imagination.
Water flowed in abundance through the wood, and
68 TRINIDADv
gentle breezes fanned us as we sauntered along. If
ever I turn planter, as I have often bad thoughts of
doing, I shall buy a cacao plantation in Trinidad.
The cane is, no doubt, a noble plant, and perhaps
crop time presents a more lively and interesting
scene than harvest in England ; but there is so
much trash, so many ill-odoured negros, so much
scum and sling and molasses that my nerves have
sometimes sunken under it. "The sweat negocia-
tion of sugar," as old Ligon calls it, is indeed a
sweaty affair; and methinks it were not good for
that most ancient and most loyal colony, Barbados,
that her sons should often visit the sylvan glades,
the deep retreats, the quiet and the coolness of the
cacao plantations in Trinidad. But planters are
not poetical. Sugar can surely never be cultivated
in the West Indies except by the labour of negros,
but I should think white men, Creoles or not, might
do all the work of a cacao plantation. The trouble
of preparing this article for exportation is actually
nothing when compared with the process of making
sugar. But the main and essential difference is,
that the whole cultivation and manufacture of cacao
is carried on in the shade. People must come be-
tween Cancer and Capricorn to understand this.
I was well tired when we got back to Antonio's
house. What a pleasant breakfast we had, and
what a cup of chocolate they gave me by way of
a beginning! So pure, so genuine, with such a
TRINIDAD. 69
divine aroma exhaling from it! Mercy on me!
what a soul-stifling compost of brown sugar, pow-
dered brick and rhubarb have I not swallowed in
England instead of the light and exquisite cacao!
N^Trtor ctXX' oux uvfog
I love the Spanish ladies to my heart; after my
own dear and beautiful countrywomen I think a
senorita would be my choice. Their dress is so
gay yet so modest, their walk so noble, their man-
ners so quiet, so gentle and. so collected. They
have none of that undue vivacity, that much ado
about nothing, that animal conceit which disgusts
me in the Gauls. A Spanish woman, whether her
education have been as finished or not, is in her
nature a superior being. Her majestic forehead,
her dark and thoughtful eye assure you that she
hath communed with herself. She can bear to be
left in solitude; yet what a look is hers, if she is
animated by mirth or love ! Then, like a goddess,
she launches forth that subtle light from within,
Ce trait de feu qui des yeux passe a Pame,
De Pame aux sens.
She is poetical if not a poet, her imagination is high
and chivalrous, and she speaks the language in
which romance was born. It is a favourite*subject
of exultation with me that twenty-two* millions of
* So says the all accomplished Humboldt, and it can-
not be much less.
7*
70 TRINIDAD.
people speak English or Spanish in the New World*
Their grammar and accent are perfectly pure in
Trinidad, but, like all the South Americans, they
have deflected from the standard of Castilian pro-
nunciation.*
Soledad ! thou wilt never read this book ; few of
those who will can ever know thee, and I shall
never see thee again on this side of the grave.
Therefore I write thy name whilst I yet remember
thy face and hear thy voice, thou sweet and inge-
nious girl ! And so having shaken hands with kind
Antonio and his lady, with Patrica, and Dolores,
and Lorenza, and all of them, we mounted our
horses and took our leave.
We returned by another route through the
woods, ascended a narrow pass called the Saddle*
if I recollect right, and came in at the head of
Maraval. We rode quite through this most lovely
valley, and got back to St. Anne's tired, delighted
and burnt to brick dust. The heat in the valleys
is generally intense, as the great height of the
mountains on either side excludes the wind and
the rays of the vertical sun are collected almost
into a focus. After resting and eating sufficiently.
we went on board the Eden for an excursion to
,
* They sound c as s, and z as in English, thus ap-
proaching towards the dialect of Portugal. By dialect
I mean language, for Portugueze is as ancient and inde-
pendent a derivative of Latin as Castilian itself.
TRINIDAD. 71
San Fernandez or Petit Bourg, a village of some
importance about twenty miles or more on the
coast to the south. However the wind failed and
we all left His Majesty's ship, like uncourteous
knaves as we were, and got into the steam-boat
which attended upon us.
Sir Ralph Woodford told us that when this
steamer was first started, he and a large party, as a
mode of patronizing the undertaking, took a trip of
pleasure in her through some of the Bocas into the
main ocean. Almost every one got sick outside,
and as they returned through the Boca Grande,
there was no one on deck but the man at the helm
and himself. When they were in the middle of the
passage, a small privateer, such as commonly in-
fested the gulf during the troubles in Colombia,
was seen making all sail for the shore of Trinidad.
Her course seemed unaccountable, but what was
their surprize, when they observed that on nearing
the coast the privateer never tacked, and finally
that she ran herself directly on shore, her crew at
the same time leaping out over the bows and sides
of the vessel, and scampering off, as if they were
mad, some up the mountains and others into the
thickets. This was so strange a sight, that Sir
Ralph Woodford ordered the helmsman to steer for
the privateer, that he might discover the cause of
it. W T hen they came close, the vessel appeared
deserted \ Sir Ralph went on board of her, and
72 TRINIDAD.
after searching various parts without finding any
one, he at length opened a little side cabin and saw
a man lying on a mat evidently with some broken
limb. The man made an effort to put himself in a
posture of supplication ; he was pale as ashes, his
teeth chattered and his hair stood on end. " Mise-
ricordia ! misericordia ! Ave Maria !" faltered forth
the Colombian. Sir Ralph asked the man what
was the cause of the strange conduct of the crew;
"Misericordia! 55 was the only reply.
I Sabeis quien soy ?* said the governor.
"El . . . el . . . O Senor ! Misericordia! Ave Ma-
ria !" answered the smuggler.
It was a considerable time before the fellow
could be brought back to his senses, when he gave
this account of the matter ; . . . that they saw a
vessel apparently following them, with only two
persons on board, and steering, without a single
sail, directly in the teeth of the wind, current and
tide ;
Against the breeze, against the tide
She steadied with upright keel.
That they knew no ship could move in such a
course by human means; that they heard a deep
roaring noise and saw an unusual agitation of the
water, which their fears magnified ; finally that
they concluded it to be a supernatural appearance.
* " Do you know who I am."
TRINIDAD. 73
accordingly drove their own vessel ashore in an
agony of terror and escaped as they could - y that
he himself was not able to move, and that, when
he heard Sir Ralph's footsteps, he verily and indeed
believed that he was fallen into the hands of the
Evil Spirit.
We arrived late at San Fernandez and had then
to ride seven or eight miles into the interior to
Mr. Mitchell's residence in the district of Napa-
rima. The commandant's house, like most of those
in the heart of the island, was of a different cha-
racter from any that I had seen before. It was
not so much an English planter's mansion as the
spacious shed of an Indian chief. Its appear-
ance, both outside and within, was nearly that of
a substantial barn, except indeed that the roof
was thatched in a very neat manner with branches
of the caratt palm, the pigeons perched on the
cross beams, and the winds from half the points
of the compass blew in through the open galleries.
Our dinner, which was my third one on that day,
was in excellent keeping. Mrs. M. an agreeable
Scotch lady, had despatched her matador to the
Bush, as the native forest is called, for delicacies,
and he had been tolerably fortunate. Ah me ! how
we revelled on His Majesty's wild hogs, smacked
our lips over an agouti, and chuckled over a tender
lapp. A stately palmeto had been decapitated to
afford us a dish of cabbage, a thing by the by which
74 TRINIDAD.
the veracious Dr. Pinchard implies of Barbados^
where such atrocities are never dreamt of. True
it is that Mrs. M. lamented with many apologies
that she had not been able to give us a monkey or
a guana, and the great drought made the best snakes
shy and difficult to be caught. However we rough-
ed it on porter and madeira, and were glad to retire
to rest early. I slept on a sofa in the parlour.
How often did I start up in the night at the rustling
of the wind in the palm leaves, and see with mo-
mentary alarm the sparkles of fire which were ever
and anon bursting forth from the roof! Sometimes
one whole side of the room was distinctly illumina-
ted by a congregation of the flies; at others the
single lamp just shot out its flame and then retired
into gloom, as if the darkness had its pulsations of
light. The dawn was ushered in by a serenade
from my neighbours the monkeys in the wood, who
set up with one consent the most inhuman yell that
ever was heard in this world. It was something
between distant thunder, loose iron bars in a cart in
Fleet Street, bagpipes, and drunken men laughing.
After breakfast we rode through the yet half-cul-
tivated country in our way to the Indian Mission at
Savana Grande. Nothing can be more wretched
than the appearance of the land in the first process
of clearing ; fire is the principal agent, and the sur-
face of the earth is obstructed with trunks and
branches of trees black and ghastly with theconfla-
TRINIDAD. 75
gration. I am told that these trees are usually left
to rot away, as the expense of drawing them off
would be too heavy, besides that the soil is much
enriched by the immense deposition of vegetable
matter. But the still standing woods are magni-
ficent. The most striking feature in their vegeta-
tion is the parasite race of plants . . . their variety,
magnitude and colours are astonishing. It is often
difficult to distinguish the standard tree from the
luxuriant weeds which interlace and enmesh its
branches with their tendrils in an indissoluble union.
Many of these bear the most gorgeous flowers upon
their bosoms of unfading green ; the wild pine
burns in the sun like a topaz rising out of a calix
of emerald. From the topmost limbs of the giant
fathers of the forest such as the silk- cotton tree,
bois Le Seur,* and various kinds of friguera, you
see the creeper, like a cord, hanging down 150 feet,
another grows down parallel with the first, the wind
twists them together into bell-ropes, as Ligon well
puts it ; others are successively united in this way,
till at length the creeper, now a stout sapling, fixes
itself in the ground, takes root, and like a graceful
pillar supports the mighty architrave above. Fresh
creepers again form a tracery round these and
around the parent tree, and swell by accretion to
* I do not pretend to spell this word correctly. I
only caught it in conversation, and believe it is some
man's name.
76 TRINIDAD.
such an enormous size, that they put me in mind
of the huge and endless folds of the strangling ser-
pents of the Laocoon.
But nothing pleased me so much as the cornbird's
nest.* This bird, in order to lay her eggs in safety
and defeat those ingenious hidalgos the monkeys,
weaves a kind of purse net, such as we see used in
petty shops to contain balls of twine and other
light articles. This she suspends by a twisted cord
of creepers from the outermost limb of many of
the great trees ; at the bottom of the purse, which
is the broadest part, lies the nest, and there she
swings away backwards and forwards before the
breeze in the prettiest manner imaginable. I be-
lieve she gets in at the bottom, but the extreme
height prevented me from seeing the aperture. If
a man were disposed to be fanciful, he would say
that the Indians borrowed their chinchorro or ham-
mock from the corn-bird's nest, though the bird
has the advantage a thousand times over in airiness
and motion. I took some credit to myself, when
looking at these nests, for the following quotation :
Hush a bye ! corn-bird ; on the tree top
When the wind blows thy cradle will rock;
If the bough breaks, thy cradle will fall,
Then down will come cradle and corn-bird and all.
Every one, who goes to Trinidad, should make a
* The oriole or sylvia pensilis of %fep, I believe.
TUINIDAD. 11
point of visiting the Indian missions of Arima and
Savana Grande. They are wholly unlike any thing
which I had ever seen before, and differ as much
from the negro yard on the one hand as they do
from an European-built town on the other. The
village of Savana Grande consisted chiefly of two
rows of houses in parallel lines with a spacious
street or promenade between them, over which there
was so little travelling that the green grass was
growing luxuriantly upon it. Each house is insula-
ted by an interval of ten or fifteen feet on either
side ; they are large and lofty, and being beautifully
constructed of spars of bamboo, and thatched with
palm branches, they are always ventilated in the
most agreeable manner. A projection of the roof
in front is supported by posts, and forms a shady
gallery, under which the Indians will sit for hours
together in motionless silence. They seem to be
the identical race of people whose forefathers Co-
lumbus discovered, and the Spaniards worked to
death in Hispaniola. They are short in stature,
(none that I saw exceeding five feet and six inches,)
yellow in complexion, their eyes dark, their hair
long, lank and glossy as a raven's wing ; they have
a remarkable space between the nostrils and the
upper lip, and a breadth and massiveness between
the shoulders that would do credit to the Farnese
Herculese. Their hands and feet are small-boned
and delicately shaped. Nothing seems to affect
s
78 TRINIDAD.
them like other men ; neither joy nor sorrow,
anger, or curiosity, take any hold of them. Both
mind and body are drenched in the deepest apa-
thy ; the children lie quietly on their mother's bo-
soms ; silence is in their dwellings and idlesse in all
their ways. Our party was sufficient of itself to
have attracted some attention, even if the Padre
had not welcomed us with a furious salute from his
two tin-kettle bells. The Indians were all sum-
moned forth, and the alcalde and the regidores
stood in front with their wands of office. These
were nearly the only signs of life which they dis-
played; they neither smiled or spoke or moved 7
but stood like mortals in a deep trance having their
eyes open. The governor gave a piece of money
to each of the children, which was received with
scarcely the smallest indication of pleasure or gra-
titude by them or their parents.* They were much
more completely clothed than the negros ; the de-
cency of the female dress was conspicuous, and
both the maiden's and the mother's bosom were
modestly shrouded from the gaze of man. The
bestial exposure of this sacred part of a .woman's
form is the most disgusting thing in the manners of
the West Indian slaves. The planters might and
ought to correct this.
* They hardly justify the first part of the remark of
Tacitus : Gaudent muneribus, sed nee data imputant
nee acceptis obligantur.
TRINIDAD- 79
The amazing contrast between these Indians
and the negros powerfully arrested my attention.
Their complexions do not differ so much as their
minds and dispositions. In the first, life stagnates :
in the last, it is tremulous with irritability. The
negros cannot be silent ; they talk in spite of them-
selves. Every passion acts upon them with strange
intensity; their anger is sudden and furious, their
mirth clamorous and excessive, their curiosity au-
dacious, and their love the sheer demand for gratifi-
cation of an ardent animal desire. Yet by their
nature they are good-humoured in the highest de-
gree, and I know nothing more delightful than to be
met by a group of negro girls, and be saluted with
their kind " How d'ye, rnassa ? how d'ye, massa?'-
their sparkling eyes and bunches of white teeth.
It is said that even the slaves despise the India^fe.
and I think it very probable ; they are decidedly in-
ferior as intelligent beings. Indeed their history
and existence form a deep subject for speculation.
The flexibility of temper of the rest of mankind
has been for the most part denied to them ; they
wither under transportation, they die under labor :
they will never willingly or generally amalgamate
with the races of Europe or Africa ; if left to
themselves with ample means of subsistence, they
decrease in numbers every year; if compelled to
any kind of improvement, they reluctantly acqui-
esce, and relapse with certainty the moment the ex-
80 TRINIDAD.
ternal compulsion ceases. They shrink before the
approach of other nations as it were by instinct ; they
are now not known in vast countries of which they
were once the only inhabitants; and it should
almost seem that they have been destined by a
mysterious Providence to people a third part of the
globe, till in the appointed time the New World
should be laid open to the Old, and the ceaseless
and irresistible stream of population from the East
should reach them and insensibly sweep them from
off the face of the earth.*
* The number of Indians at Savana Grande, is :
Men 43
Women 56
Boys 64
Girls 66
At Arima Men... 60
Women 77
Boys 81
Girls 60
Total. 507
The Trinidad Almanac for 1824 states the total
amount of Indians in the island thus :
Men 218
Women 234
Boys 222
Girls 219
Total . 893.
giving an excess of only 13 females over the males,
which I believe is not according to the d\& proportion
in countries where population is on the increase*
TRINIDAD. 81
In this place were assembled by the governor's
order a division of free negro settlers, a part of that
body of slaves who were excited to insurrection in
some of the southern states of the North American
Union by a British proclamation during the last
war, and upon the ill-success of the expedition
against New Orleans, were received on board the
squadron commanded by Sir Alexander Cochrane,
and finally dispersed about the West Indies, but
chiefly, I believe, established in Trinidad. It was
a deed mali exempli, and one which may be very
easily played off hereafter against ourselves. This
settlement comprises about three hundred persons,
and a very fine and jovial set of Yankees they are.
It happened to rain hard at the time, and the Padre
of the mission was courteous enough to proffer the
use of the chapel, into which accordingly we all
entered with one consent. The Americans being
after some time tolerably composed, their men on
one side and their women and children on the other ;
the bishop standing before the altar, (the pyx being
first duly removed,) the padre on the right hand, the
chaplains on the left, myself in a corner, los seno-
res regidores, the alcaldes and cacique of the
Indians bearing their wands of office, and las
senoras their wives with their patient babies, both
awaiting in deep resignation the explanation of
this mystery, Sir Ralph Woodford, in Windsor
uniform, took his Leghorn hat from off his head,
a*
82 TRWtDAF,
vibrated his silver-studded Crowther with the grace
of a Cicero, and, as the Spaniards say, con gentil
donayre y continente, in hiinc modum locutus est.
" Silence there ! • • .What for you make all dat
dere noise ? Me no tand dat, me can tell you. I
hear that there have been great disturbances
amongst you, that you have been quarrelling and
fighting, and that in one case there has been a los&
of life. Now, me tell you all flat. . .me no allow
dat sort of ting. . .me take away your cut-lashes, you
savey dat? What for you fight? Because you
nasty drunk with rum. You ought to be ashamed :
you no longer now slave. . .King George hav tak
you from America, (you know dis much better place
dan America,) he make you free. . .What den 2 Me
tell you all dis. . .(what for you no make quiet your
piccaninny,* you great tall ting dere ?. . .)me tell you
dis. . .if you free, you no idle ; you savey dat ? You
worky, but you worky for yourselve, and make
grow noice yams and plantains. . .den your wives
all fat, and your piccaninny tall and smooth. You
try to make your picknies better and more savey
dan yourselve. You all stupid. . .what den! no
your fault dat. . .you no help it. Now but you free,
act for yourselve like buckra, and you love your
picnies ? yes. . .well den, you be glad to send dem
to school, make dem read, write, savey counting,
* Piccaninny . . . quasi pequeno nino.
TRINIDAD. 83
and able pray God Almighty in good words, when
you no savey do so yourselve.
"Now de bishop is come to do all this; His
Majesty King George have sent him from England
to take care of you and all of us ; he is very much
gentleman and he king, you savey, of all de parson*
He savey every ting about you, he love you dearly,
he come from England across the sea to see your
face. . .no you den very bad people, if you no obey
him ? Yes you very bad, much wicked people if
you don't."
Finierat Woodford ; his harangue, of which the
above is an imperfect sketch, produced a great
effect, and a murmur of applause arose from the
assembled Yankees; then the bishop addressed
them, and as the governor had laid down the law
civiliter, so he spoke to them spiritualiter, his man-
ner was affectionate and impressive, his matter
simple and cogent, and he concluded by solemnly
blessing in the name of God the whole congregation.
The padre was very complimentary in Andalusian,
the negros elated in negro tongue, and the poor
dear Indians quiet, staring, and as cognizant of the
nature of what was going on as of the proceedings
of the House of Commons. It was altogether a
strange contrast of different natures and a theme for
passing smiles and lasting thoughts.
According to appointment at nine the next morn-
ing, Mr. Mitchell's house was surrounded by a
84 TRINIDAD*
noisy multitude of men, women and children*
Some came to be baptized, some to gossip, and some
to be married. Many of the latter brought in their
arms smiling arguments that the prayers of the
church for fecundity would be superfluous. They
all entered the house with perfect nonchalance^
roamed about in every part of it, and laughed and
gabbled in as unrestrained a manner as they would
have done in their own huts. Mrs. Mitchell's par-
lour, where I had slept, was constituted baptistery
and altar. A white cloth was spread on the table,
and a large glassvase, filled with pure water, was
placed in the middle. After about a quarter of an
hour's arduous exertions on the part of the governor
and commandant, these light-hearted creatures were
reduced to as low a degree of noise, as their
natures would admit. The bishop then read the
first part of the service, the whole party kneeling
on the floor; but when the rite of aspersion came
to be performed, there had like to have been a riot
from the mothers jockeying for the honour of first
baptism at the bishop's hand. The two chaplains
ministered till they streamed, and never did I hear
such incessant squalling and screaming as arose
from the regenerated piccaninnies. I think seventy
were baptised and registered, which was the most
laborious part of all. We had some difficulty in
collecting them for the conclusion of the service,
but upon the whole the adult negros behaved ex?
TRINIDAD. 85
ceedingly well, and displayed every appearance of
unfeigned devotion.
And then came Hymen ! Bless thine eyes, sweet
divinity, how I love thee! Thou that earnest so
easily to those poor votaries, when wilt thou come
to me? When wilt thou with a spark from thy
golden torch set fire to political economy, and re-
duce to ashes the relation which sexagenarians have
created between population and the means of
subsistence ?
About a dozen couples were agreed, but seven or
eight more were influenced by the sweet contagion,
and struck up a marriage on the spot, as we see
done at the ends of the old comedies. One woman,
I remember, turned sulky and would not come to
the scratch, but Chesapeak her lover was not to be
so done ; " Now you savey, Mol," said he, " me no
tand your shim shams ; me come to be married, and
me will be married ; you come beg me when I got
another;" still Mol coquetted it; Chesapeak went
out, staid five minutes, and, as I am a Christian man,
brought in a much prettier girl under his arm, and
was married to her forthwith. I suppose Chesa-
peak had his reputation. I have known cases in
England, where something of this sort of manly
conduct would have had a very salutary effect.
Now a grand difficulty arose from there being no
rings ; those in the women's ears being' too large by
half. Hereupon I took. . .not thy hair, my Euge-
86 TRINIDAD.
nia ! oh no. . but a gold hoop which my good father
bought for me from a wandering Jew ; this I proffer-
ed for the service of the sable bridegrooms, and I
now wear it as a sort of charm as close as possible
to Eugenia's hair. It noosed thirteen couples. I
gave away most of the brides ; one of them, a pret-
ty French girl of the Romish faith, behaved very
ill ; she giggled so much that the clergyman threat-
ened to desist from the ceremony, and her mate, a
quiet and devout Protestant, was very angry with
her. When she was kneeling after the blessing, I
heard her say to her husband,. .." dit-on, Jean !
hooka drole maniere de se marier! he! he! he!"
I'll warrant she leads her spouse a decent life of it.
The Pitch Lake is in this neighbourhood, but I
was unable to visit it. The roads are made in a
great measure of the bitumen, and there is a hot
calcined smell always issuing from it during the
action of the sun which is very disagreeable. Re-
peated experiments have been tried upon it, but
it is found to be unfit, except at an enormous cost
of preparation, for the use of ship-builders.
St. Joseph's, the old capital of the island, is dis-
tant about ten miles from Port of Spain, and a little
removed from the banks of the river Caroni. It
has a fine parish church, with a spire, barracks for
a detachment of soldiers which is usually kept here,
and a few good houses besides. Here it was that
Sir Walter Raleigh committed certain getjtlsmanly
TKINIDAB. 87
piracies, when he was on his first voyage to discover
El Dorado. The Spanish governor, it appears, did
not know his right hand from his left, a thing evi-
dently as heinous as true, and which no doubt de-
served to be severely punished by every English-
man. The commanding officer here, Major Taylor,
had the finest collection of humming birds I ever
saw. He had shot and stuffed them all himself with
the assistance of a small negro gamekeeper.
Arima is eight or nine miles farther on and is the
principal mission of the Indians. They have one
large square and a street or two, and the buildings
are more substantial than at Savana Grande. The
community is opulent in plantations of cacao, and
is obliged to keep up a Casa Real, a prison, a large
church, two schools and maintain their padre. In-
dians and free negros are admitted into these schools,
but the master of the boys told me there were no
slaves. They were all taught to read and write, in
the last of which the Indians seemed to excel.
Some of their copies were beautiful specimens of
penmanship. The room was divided into Troja,
Cartago and Roma, and the chief book of instruc-
tion was the old Caton Christiano, which with all
its Romish garblings and foppery is a very good
text book for the young savages. The horrible
absurdity of the paintings in the church exceeded
any thing in my experience of Romish licence. I
am sure the bishop of Gerren ean never approve
w
88 TMNIDAD.
of such gross blasphemy, and it might become him
to exert his authority in putting an end to its ex-
istence.
The mummeries of this sect of Christians are
very comical in Trinidad. During Passion-week
the congregation regularly hiss Judas out of church,
and on the Saturday before Easter day he is always
hung by the neck from a very lofty gibbet, and
assailed with stones and execrations by all the de-
vout part of the mob of the town. Three English
sailors acquired considerable popularity and the
reputation of being good Catholics by hurling some
brickbats at the traitor with such success as to
knock his head clean off from his wicked shoulders.
When I was in this island, there was a good deal
of vexatious confusion about the intermarriages of
Protestants and Romanists. Benedict XIV. issued
a bull in 1741, in which " dolens imprimis quam
maxime Sanctitas sua, eos esse inter Catholicos qui,
insano amore twrpiter dementati, ab hisce detesta-
bilibus connubiis, quae sancla Mater Ecclesia per-
petuo damnavit atque interdixit, exanimo non ab-
horrent, et prorsus sibi abstinendum non ducunt
laudansque magnopere zelum illorum Antistitum,
qui severioribus propositis, spiritualibus poenis Ca-
tholicos coercere student, ne sacrilego hoc vinculo
sese Hasreticis conjungant, Episcopos omnes, Vica-
rios Apostol\cos, Parochos, Missionarios, et alios
quoscunque Dei et Ecclesise fideles ministros in iis
TRINIDAD- 89
% ;
partibus degentes serio graviterque hortatur et
monet, ut Catholicos utriusque sexus ab hujusmodi
nuptiis in propriarum animarum perniciem ineun-
dis, quantum possint, abstineant.
# # * *
"At si forte" (there's a peacemaker for your
money after all those hard words!) "at si forte,'
but if by chance, says the Pope, there should be a
few graceless rogues who will fall in love with a
beautiful Protestant, why then in such a case, much
indeed against the poor gentleman's inclination, but
still under the pressure of circumstances, His Holi-
ness allows the marriage, and at the same time
orders the sinner, as soon as the wedding is over,
•' ut pro gravissimo scelere^ quod admisit,* pozniten-
tiam agat, et veniam a Deo precetur." So here we
have the Pope first denouncing a thing as a mortal
sin, then permitting the sin to be committed, then
sanctioning the sin by what he c^lls a sacrament,
and then declaring that tljis sacramentary rite was
all the while a most flagitious crime, and enjoining
penitence and petition to God for a pardon of the
same! Comfortable pastime for a honeymoon, by
my faith !
However this licence for committing an atrocious
sin, gravissirnum scelus, was only sold to the Dutch
* I doubt if the Provost of Eton would forgive the
Pope himself his bad Latin.
9
90 TRINIDAD.
and some few others ; and the difficulty has been to
get it extended to our colonies where there is a Ro-
mish population. The good and sensible Bishop of
Gerren has exerted himself very much in this be-
half, and has at length succeeded in eliciting from
Leo. XII. a permit to Catholics to lead about a
heretic wife with them. It was a pity to be obli-
ged to excommunicate so many respectable young
gentleman who could not resist the assault of an
English eye or the provocation of an English com-
plexion. The poor Bishop could not make up his
mind to it. Indeed he hardly hates heretics with
any decent malignity.
There is a school in Port of Spain very liberally
maintained, in which English, Spaniards, and French
are taught indifferently upon the plan of the na-
tional instruction in England. The boys read and
repeat English so well that it is diffcult to detect
the foreign accent ; they all use the authorized ver-
sion of the New Testament, and say the church ca-
techism. This school however was not in good
order ; and the master, though an able man, had the
reputation of being an irregular character and very
neglectful of his duty.
The jail is the best in the Antilles, and really is
respectable. An honest tread-wheel has been
wisely provided, and this grand invention has been
found to produce the same salutary effects in Trini-
TRINlUADff 91
dad, which it has done wherever it has revolved its
portly body.
Labatur in omne volubilis sevum.
It must accompany every step in the process of
Emancipation.
As far as I could see or hear, the execution of the
Orders in Council had created no permanent dis-
turbance, and the planters themselves were willing
to confess that a great deal of causeless violence
had been displayed upon the occasion. The mar-
ket on Sunday morning is allowed till half-past nine
or ten, at which time the place is cleared. This
measure at first excited great opposition, but it is
now not thought of, or only remembered to be ap-
plauded. The institution of Banks for Petty Sav^
ings does not seem to be a wise plan of going to
work in a society like this ; the object should rather
be to induce an appetite for comforts of dress and
food which can only be purchased by the product of
some labour. I would rather that a negro spent a
dollar in buying a new hat than that he should lay
it up in the bank. With the new hat he will pur-
chase or acquire a perception of and craving for
new comforts and new conveniences ; he will be
more and more loth to part with what has either
gratified his vanity or contributed to his ease, and
the pain of losing will be in just proportion to the
pleasure of possessing the article. When this pain
M .
B2 .TRINIDAD, |
begins to be felt constantly, the great difficulty wili
be surmounted; a stimulus to industry, a spur to
improvement will have been introduced into the
mind, and from that time forward the negro may be ;
safely left to the impulsion of those external and in-
ternal agents which are commonly found to be ef-
fectual in the more civilized regions of the globe.
The unequivocal existence of this stimulus in
steady operation seems to me to be the true and un-
erring sign of the arrival of that aera when eman-
cipation will be a blessing to the slave, the master
and the community. If, before this point be at-
tained, complete freedom be given to all the bond-
men in the British colonies, it is as demonstrable
morally as any proposition in Euclid is mathemati-
cally, first that the property in the soil must change
hands; secondly that the commerce of the islands
must languish or die altogether; and thirdly that
the progress of civilization in the negros themselves
must be indefinitely retarded, and the quality of
their future condition incalculably debased,
A Bank for Savings is the peculiar product of an
age and nation of high refinement, dense population
and laborious subsistence. It is that aid which
should alone be given to the industrious poor. > It
should follow at some distance the birth and active
operation of those physical and moral agents by
which man is impelled onwards in the road of ge-
neral improvement; if it precedes, it may prevent
TRINIDAJD, 93
their existence at Jail, or at best, it will infallibly
protract the period of their birth. Now the negros
in the West Indies are not an industrious poor ; they
are indolent by nature, as their brethren in Africa
are at this moment in whatever part of that conti-
nent they may have been examined, and this natu-
ral indolence is justified in their eyes and rendered
inveterate by a climate and a soil which not only
indispose to labour, but almost make it unnecessary.
You exhort a man to work, to till the fertile ground
and to aspire after the possession of the obvious com-
forts of opulence ; he answers that he does not want
them, thanks God that the yams and plantains will
grow abundantly for his eating ; and that new rum is
very cheap at the grog-shops ; any thing beyond this
cannot be worth the trouble to be undergone for it.
What has the philanthropist to do ? Not to set up
a bank for his savings certainly, or at least not to
rely upon it; he has no savings; he may indeed
very likely plunder his master or his neighbour, and
you will not be improving him by giving him four
per cent, upon such a deposit. Suppose he were
to accumulate in this manner a sum large enough to
purchase his freedom, wh^ch some have done,
have you really benefited tW man ? Not in the
least. All that you have done is this, that whereas
the slave was compelled to labour and was thereby
kept within certain bounds of sobriety, the freed-
man becomes the first week a vagabond, the second
9*
94 TRINIDAD.
a robber, and the third a grinder of corn by the
sweat of his legs in the jail of Port of Spain.
The philanthropist has one object to effect and
only one ; he must civilize the negros. He cannot
do this by force, for the sources of barbarism are in
the mind, and the mind even of a negro is intangible
by violence. He cannot take the Castle of Indo-
lence by storm, for it will vanish before his face to
rk-appear behind his back. He must make his
approaches in form and carry a charm in his hand ;
he must hold steadily before him the mirror shield
of knowledge and cause the brutified captives to see
themselves therein. He cannot disenchant them,
until he has first inspired into their hearts a wish to
be disenchanted, and they shall no sooner have
formed that wish than the spell which hath bound
them shall be broken for ever.
Although the bank is nearly nugatory at present,
I am not sorry upon consideration that it exists.
There may be some slaves so far advanced beyond
their fellows as to become legitimate and beneficial
depositors, and as freedom may be purchased in
Trinidad, it may in such cases prove a valuable
assistance to a regular and voluntary industry. At
all events the institution is ready to act whenever
civilization shall render it advantageous.
Many of the other orders are so important that
they cannot be discussed in a line, and I reserve
them for a filture opportunity.
TRINIDAD. 95
On Easter Monday, the 4th of April, after a de-
lightful visit, we re-embarked in the Eden and bade
farewell to our kind and hospitable host and the
many friends whom we had found in Trinidad.
" Adios, Adios ! Viva usted muchos anos !" — and
then hoist the jib, brace up the main and fore
yards, and haul down the pendant.
GRENADA
JList to a landsman, ye Captains, and let nothing
tempt you to steer outwards through the Boca de
Huevos, which you rejoice to call the Umbrella
Passage. It had like to have been the shadow of
death to me. The cut seems short and easy, the
water smooth, you have a fresh breeze on the quar-
ter, and you fancy it will carry the ship through.
But I say unto you again, go not within the Boca de
Huevos, for you will have no better luck than
Columbus or myself.
We got within a hundred yards of the line of the
open sea, when the wind died. The passage is
much longer than it appears from the Gulf, and
very high precipices on either side will cause a dead
calm at thirty points of the compass. As the wind
fell we began to feel and to see the fierce current
which set inwards, like a river, from the N. W.
It came in diagonally, and the ship made stern way
before it till the end of the spanker boom was within
thirty feet of the rock. There we lay for a season
in dead water or nearly so, the sails hung motion-
less, every boat was lowered, and the men pulled
GRENADA/ 97
for their lives against the backward impulse of
the mighty vessel. We then cast anchor in fifty
fathoms. After ten minutes pause a propitious flaw
from the clefts of the precipice filled the top-gal-
lants and royals, the cable was slipped, the ship
made a little head way, the boats aided and then
cast off, and at length we got again into the middle
of the stream. We left the best bower behind us
at the bottom, and were not sorry to take our posi-
tion once more within the Gulf. The rocks are
steep as a wall, and entirely bare of vegetation for
twenty yards above the level of the water, and if
the wind had been with the current, we must have
been infallibly wrecked.
The next day we tried our luck through the Boca
de Navios or Ship Passage, and got out into the
sea, but before we were a quarter of a mile from
the outlet, the wind fell again and the current began
to drive us backwards as before. We therefore
anchored once more in very deep water and did not
sail till the evening, when a light breeze off shore
carried the ship fairly away. Early the next day
we made Grenada, and came into the bay by twelve
o'clock.
If Trinidad is sublime, Grenada is lovely. I do
not know why it should have put me in mind of
Madeira, but it did so continually. The harbour
is one of the finest in the West Indies, and the hur-
ricanes have not ranged so far to the south yet.
98 GRENADA.
The town covers a peninsula which projects into
the bay ; Fort George stands on the point, the spir-
ed church on the isthmus ; within is the Carenage
full of ships and the wharfs of the merchants sur-
rounding it ; beyond it lie three or four beautiful
creeks indenting the cane fields, an aqueduct at
which the boats water, the mangroves growing out
of the sea, the great Lagoon, and Point Salines
shooting out a long and broken horn to the south-
west. Over all, and commanding every thing in
the vicinity, tower the Richmond Heights, which
are crested with fortifications of prodigious extent,
from which the Bocas of Trinidad have been seen
on a clear afternoon. The rest of the prospect is
delightful ; in every direction the eye wanders over
richly cultivated valleys with streams of water run-
ning through them, orchards of shaddocks and
oranges, houses with gardens, negro huts embow-
ered in plantain leaves, mountains and little hills
romantically mixed and variegated with verdant
coppices of shrubs and trees. The view from
Government House, which is situated on a ridge at
the end of Hospital Hill, is the Bay of Naples on
one side, and a poet's Arcadia on the other. The
planters seem to have had some such notion them-
selves, though, Heaven knows, being chiefly Scotch-
men, they are riot overburthened with Greek ; the
vale below they call Tempe, the river, I suppose,
Peneus, and a cloven eminence near to it Mount
GRENADA. 99
Parnassus, where sugars of the finest quality in the
colony are produced.
My stay in this island was short, but I was much
delighted with all that I saw. Grenada is perhaps
the most beautiful of the Antilles, meaning by this
that her features are soft and noble without being
great and awful. There is an Italian look in the
country which is very distinct from the usual cha-
racter of the intertropical regions, and is peculiar
to this colony. I rode a considerable way into the
interior, and found every part green and broken
and romantic. I had not time to reach the Grand
Etang, which, I am told, is a great curiosity. But
after all, 1 believe nothing in the island surpasses
the prospect from Government House or the Rich-
mond Heights ; it almost deserves that Westall
should make a voyage from England to see it and
paint it.
St. George's is a large town and picturesquely
placed on a peninsula and the sides of a hill, but
the consequence of this situation is that the streets
are all so steep that the inhabitants consider it
unsafe to use any sort of carriages on them.
However they certainly make more of this than
is necessary. I would engage to drive a tandem
with perfect security from the landing place in the
Carenage to Government House. The church had
no roof when I was there, but the plan of a new
building was already prepared which was to retain
100 GRENADA.
the old spire and its present excellent situation.
The clock here, given by Governor Matthews, is
much celebrated. There are two other churches
in the island, and two, or at least one more, are to
be built as soon as it is practicable. Mr. Macma-
hon, the rector of St. George's, is a good and inter-
esting old man. In the insurrection of 1795 he
with many others was placed in a room previously
to being summoned to execution by the slaves.
He saw all his companions taken out and shot one
by one, but having had the luck of Ulysses to stand
last, he determined to make a bold push for his life.
Macmahon is a tall and was then an uncommonly
strong man, and the moment he walked out he
leaped upon the slave general and clung round his
neck so tightly that they could not force him away
for a long time. The struggle produced a pause
and an inquiry who he was, and when he was
known to be the parson there was a common cry
for saving his life, as he had always been a kind and
charitable man to every one connected with his
cure. The worthy rector tells the story with a
deserved satisfaction.
Grenada is honourably distinguished amongst the
British Antilles for its internal unanimity and its
liberal treatment of the coloured classes of the
inhabitants. In this last point the planters of this
island go beyond all their brethren ; the free co-
loured man has every privilege of the white,
GRENADA. 101
although there never has been, and at present it is
not to be wished that there should be, an instance
of any of that rank sitting in the Assembly. In
the actual state of their average improvement it is
quite sufficient that they are esteemed free in every
*ense and are treated with justice and respect. I
cannot speak of the management of the slaves
from any very accurate examination, but they
seemed to be all as good humoured, vivacious and
impudent as the rest of their fellows wherever I
have seen them, and I am acquainted with many
anecdotes which would lead me to believe that
they are humanely governed and comfortably main-
tained. Indeed the prejudice of colour is fainter
in this colony than in almost any other, and I have
no doubt that every measure of regular civilization
of the negros will be received and enforced by the
legislature with the utmost cheerfulness. The act
for investing the bishop with episcopal powers was
passed by acclamation "; an excellent and able cler-
gyman, who was sent by the bishop, has been
kindly received, a house built for him, and a church
in a remote part of the island put into proper order
for divine service. I know enough of Mr. Barker
and his amiable wife to feel convinced that their
residence alone will be a general benefit.
There are still a few French proprietors and a
Romish priest administers to them, but they gra-
10
102 GRENADA.
dually decrease and the face of society may be said
to be English.
I like the Grenadans much ; they have a picture
of an island, they give turtle, porter and champagne
in abundance and perfection, they lend horses, and
send pines and pomegranates on board your ship,
in short they are right pleasant Christians ; . . . one
thing only I find fault with, but that one thing is, I
am sorry to say, a mountain. Gentlemen of Gre-
nada and the Grenadines as far as Cariacou, where
are your wives ? where are your heirs ? you will
say the fashion is Persian and that they are within
the veils; you will say that there are just forty
ladies in the island ! it may be so, but show them,
gentleman, to the world and put to silence the mo-
ralities of Englishmen and Barbadians. Of Gre-
nada alone can I say that 1 never saw a single lady
all the while I was in it.
ST. VINCENT'S.
We left Grenada after dinner on the evening of
Friday the 8th of April, passed at some distance to
leeward of the long line of islands and islets called
Grenadines, which are equally distributed between
the two governments of St. Vincent's and Grenada,
and after beating up for nearly twenty-four hours
in sight of land, came to anchor in Kingstown Bay
at five in the morning of Sunday the 10th.
The view of the town and surrounding country
is thought by many to be the most beautiful thing
in the Antilles ; it is indeed a delightful prospect,
but, according to my taste, not within ken of the
surpassing loveliness of the approach to Grenada.
Trinidad is South American, but St. George's, the
Lagoon, and Point Salines are perfect Italy. Kings-
town lies in a long and narrow line upon the edge
of the water; on the eastern end is a substantial
and somewhat handsome edifice containing two
spacious apartments, wherein the council and As-
sembly debate in th« morning, and the ladies and
gentlemen dance in the evening; towards the
western extremity is also a substantial and ugly
„
104 ST. yincent's.
building, something between a hospital and a bar-
rack, which has the honour of being a church ;
hard by, yet opposite to it, is an airy and comforta-
ble tabernacle for the methodists, and between both,
but rather closer to the latter, stands or perhaps lies
the humble mansion of the hero of Curazoa. In
the back ground a grand amphitheatre of moun-
tains embraces the town, and there was a verdancy
and freshness in the general aspect of the country
which certainly exceeded any thing I saw in the
West Indies.
But this greenness was as the appearance of wa-
ter in the wilderness. I always was, it is true, in a
thaw within the Tropics, being naturally, as heaven
made me, of a melting mood in heart and body ;
but in St. Vincent's, and therein more especially in
the aforesaid substantial and ugly church in St. Vin-
cent's, I verily streamed from my hair, eye-brows,
nose, lips and chin continuously; the big round
drops coursed one another adown my innocent
cheeks, and projected themselves upon my gloves
or trowsers in graceful, I had almost said greaseful,
precipitation. The compages of my corporeal sys-
tem seemed about to dissolve. Hamlet would not
have found his ;mass too solid here. Botanicus ve+
rus, says Linnaeus, desudabit in augendo amabilem
scientiam ; . . . Mercy on me ! it might be a criterion
of zeal in Sweden, but in Kingstown a very bad
and slothful botanist nearly exsuded his life in
walking half way to the Garden.
9
st. Vincent's, 105
,s
m
I know nothing inter minora incommoda vitae so
annoying to the feelings of a young man as to per-
spire invincibly under the eyes of an interesting
girl. In the same pew with me and right opposite
was seated one of the prettiest girls in the West
Indies. Though a Creole, Clarissa had as dazzling
a carmine on her cheeks as an English beauty ; her
features, though perhaps approaching to what the
French call minces, were sharp and delicate ; her
forehead rather too low, and her chin a little too
pointed ; but then her figure was rich in all the fas-
cinations of tropical girlishness. As to the story
about rouge, I do not believe one word of it. No
woman would venture such a thing in a crowded
church in these countries ; the best China leaf
would not stand. This is amply proved by obser-
vation ; for with the exception of Clarissa and one
or two more in Barbados, (but they had both lived
a long time in England,) I never saw a lady's cheek
which had one jot of rose. A Briton may well
say,
La sont les Ks, les roses sont ici.
The best were certainly pure lily ; the next like
thin vellum or Bath outsides; the worst as the
parchment of a deed on which the statute of limita-
tions may have run. For all this, I like the Creole
ladies, especially the dear Barbadians ; they are all
so kind and modest and unaffected; though few of
them are well-informed, yet they are simple-hearted
10*
106 st- Vincent's.
i
and docile, and a, sensible ffcan might make any
thing of them ; they are eminently donstestic and af-
fectionate. But for the Aurora blush upon Euge-
nia's cheek... indeed, fair Creoles, you have no
idea of it !
An Englishman must visit foreign lands before he
can conceive how prodigal nature has been in
showering down beauty and heavenliness upon his
own countrywomen. There are so many cox-
combs, poets and others, who affect to talk about
the cold beauties of the north, and of course the
warm, perhaps the hot, beauties of the south, that
many foolish people, who have never crossed the
Channel, really think they are paying a high com-
pliment when they say that such an one is quite
French, or another a perfect Italian. As if a name
made any difference in the thing ! We all remem-
ber that great Dutch Circassian, the Persian's wo-
man, and
Her eyes' blue languish and her golden hair !
Ah! Master Collins !
People do cant so about the French. La belle
Frangaise and so on. Why, is there no shame in
man ? Let the whole feminine gender of Gaul be
divided into three classes, of which the last is in-
calculably smaller than the other two. The first is
downright ugly; creatures of this class are more
like Macbeth's witches than women of other coun-
tries, brown as walnuts from constant and unbon-
ST. VINCENT V. 107
m
* - * t •
netted exposure' to the sun, rabgh-fcatured" and
hoarse-voiced. The second class is simply plain ;
these are tanned to about new mahogany, have gross
figures, no features, and a want of remarkableness
all over them ; this is the most numerous division^
and includes the bulk of the sex. The third sort
are certainly pretty, taking that word in its most
restricted sense. These have sparkling black or
hazel eyes, olive or perhaps five per cent, of fair
faces, neat shapes, inexpressive feet and legs, soft
voices and agreeable manners. Of course there
are the usual exceptions, the rarae nantes, but upon
an average the scale of beauty in France does not
ascend higher than this.*
Now, reader, if you are an Englishman, (for I
know nothing about the Scotch and Irish,) think
over your own family, your sisters, or perhaps you
have a cousin or so, . I love a cousin :
she is such an exquisite relation, just standing be-
tween me and the stranger to my name, drawing
upon so many sources of love and tieing them all
up with every cord of human affection almost
my sister ere my wife !
And what has all this to do with St. Vincent's?
Nothing, absolutely nothing; but surely it is as
well as a modern Thebaid or even a North Georgia
Gazette.
* I do not include the Genevese in tbjs account*
Some of them are beautiful indeed.
108 st. Vincent's.
One thing disgusted me much; I allude to the
practice of working runaway, riotous or convict
slaves in chains in the public street of Kingstown.
I do not mean that any bodily pain was occasioned
by the fetters ; they were too light for that ; but I
have all reason to condemn a custom which must
wantonly wound the feelings of every Englishman at
least, which must be utterly useless to the public,
and unspeakably injurious to the moral system of the
wretched individual. What hope could an Apostle
conceive of that being, who has laughed in an open
street with an iron bolt upon his leg ? We chain
free-born men in England, but we put them first
within four walls. Once in the time of Edward VI.
an act of Parliament was passed to manacle vaga-
bonds and force them to labour on the roads, but
the thing would not do; it was repealed in the
course of two years afterwards. Blackstone, or
some lawyer, has a good remark upon it, but I for-
get the words. The legislature of St. Vincent's
have much to their honour built an excellent jail ;
— why, instead of lavishing £42,000 currency upon
the very dismallest and most inconvenient church
in Christendom, did they not deduct £500 for a
tread-wheel ! The chained slave does not perform
one hour's work of a British rustic in the whole
day ; but will he, nill he, he would effect something
more on the steps of the Brixton stair-case. It
answers well, as I have said before, in Port of
st. fincbnt's. 109
Spain; let Mr., Shepherd mention the thing in
Kingstown, he is a man of sense and an Etonian,
and will agree with me upon the subject.
The jail here is a very creditable building, and
indeed this and the one in Trinidad are the only
two that would be suffered to exist through a quar-
ter sessions in England. All the others which I
saw in the West Indies are disgraceful to their
respective communities. The botanical garden is
much fallen off from the state in which it once was,
but there are still some very fine specimens of the
valuable exotics of the East, such as nutmegs,
cinnamon and cloves. The great work that remains
to be achieved for West Indian botany is the intro-
duction of the true oriental mangosteen ; to which
perhaps I should add a wish for the chirimoya of
Peru. These two with the common pines might
form a passable dessert. It is hardly necessary to
remark that what is called mangosteen in some of
the Antilles, is merely a variety of the mango. It
is a great pity that any establishment of this sort
should be allowed to decay ; for trees and fruits and
flowers are humanizing things, soothing the passions,
calling forth only the peaceful energies of the intel-
lect, and attaching mankind to the soil on which
they have both grown together : a virtue much
wanted in the colonies of America.
The church establishment is very defective^
there being, I believe, only two churches in St.
110 ST, VINCENT^,
Vincent's, and one built by a meritorious individual
of the name of Nash in Cariacou.* There are
some Papists also, with a South American Priest of
no very good character to wait upon them. Hence
the Methodists flourish like a palm branch, and live
£nd sing away in complete clover. Here .it was
that Moses Rayner dwelt ; from this place it was
that he sailed in the schooner to strike terror and
dismay into the stoutest heart in Barbados. The
legislature was convoked by an extraordinary sum-
mons ; the Attorney General's opinion taken ; the
magistrates interrogated ; the King's house garri-
soned ; Sir Henry Wardens dinner almost spoiled.
Meantime Moses sits very quietly in his tight little
schooner,
et fruitur Diis
Iratis ;
he writes and receives despatches with the air of an
ambassador ; takes time to consider like a Chancel-
lor V deliberates with his friends, and walks the
deck like Hamlet ; —
To land, or not to land, that is the question.
Whether 'tis Methodisticallest to suffer
The groans and cane-tops of Barbadian blackguards ;
Or to weigh anchor and set sail to leeward,
And, by absconding, end them ? —
Moses a meek man, though a methodist, know-
* Cariacou however is in the government of Grenada.
i
Vc. Vincent's. Ill
ing that discretion is the better part of valour, and
tender of the peace of the ancient and loyal colony,
at length paid for his passage down as he had paid
for his passage up, ordered the captain to put the
schooner before the wind and bade adieu to the
unkindly shores of Carlisle Bay.
The legislature have passed an act for building
a church in Becquia and two more in St. Vincent's,
and I trust that this act will not be allowed to fall
asleep as some others of the sort have done. Some
reformations of importance are wanted in this isl-
and, and those planters, who are wise to their own
interests, will see that they are executed. They
must not legislate any more for England ; for Eng-
land has a long glass now and can make out objects
by night or by day. By themselves will they and
all the planters stand, and by themselves will ithey
falli if to fall be their lot.
ST. LUCIA.
All Monday night and Tuesday morning of the
L2th of April, we were becalmed under the mighty
shadow of the Soufriere, which is the north-western
extremity of St. Vincent's. It is a magnificent
mountain with deep clefts and gullies in its sides,
and the summit is only seen at intervals, between
the rolling clouds. How still and motionless it
seemed, and what a contrast it presented to itself
on the awful night of the first of May 1812, a night
much to be remembered in the West Indies, and
the tale whereof will remain as a nursery treasure
to generations that are to be born hereafter !
The wind freshened as soon as we had slowly
escaped the lee of the land, and carried us gaily
along till we made the mountains of St. Lucia.
The first approach to this island from the south
offers the most striking combination of various
kinds of scenery that I have ever seen. Two
rocks, which the Gods call Pitons and men Sugar-
loaves, rise perpendicularly out of the sea and
shoot to a great height in parallel cones, which
taper away towards the summit like the famous
ST- LUCIA. II
r»
•spires of Coventry. These rocks, which are fea-
thered from the clouds to the waves with evergreen
foliage, stand like pillars of Hercules on either
side of the entrance into a small but deep and
beautiful bay. A pretty little village or planta-
tion appears at the bottom of the cove ; the sandy
beach stretches like a line of silver round the blue
water, and the cane fields form a broad belt of
vivid green in the back ground. Behind this the
mountains, which run north and south throughout
the island, rise in the most fantastic shapes, here
cloven into steep-down chasms, there darting into
arrowy points, and every where shrouded or
swathed, as it were, in wood, which the hand of
man will probably never lay low. The clouds,
which within the tropics are infallibly attracted by
any woody eminences, contribute greatly to the
wildness of the scene ; sometimes they are so
dense as to bury the mountains in darkness ; at
other times they float transparently like a silken
veil; frequently the flaws from the gulleys perfo-
rate the vapours and make windows in the smoky
mass, and then again the wind and the sun will
cause the whole to be drawn upwards majestically
J ike the curtain of a gorgeous theatre.
But beautiful as these sierras look, it i&woe to
the man who ventures on foot to- penetrate their
recesses. Even on horseback it is sometimes peri-
lous to traverse the forest by the alleys that have
11
114 ST. LUCIA.
been opened : for there and in old and ill-kept
rooms snakes and wood-slaves love to dwell, and
the natives tell direful stories about the poison of
the first and the tenacity of the second. However
I never met with any person who had known an in-
stance of the wood-slave fixing itself upon a hu-
man being, though every body seemed to believe
the story. The animal is a broad and flat-headed
lizard, and of a dull grey colour. The negros have
a particular aversion to them from a notion that con-
tact with them will produce leprosy. It is said that
three English sailors, having heard that the western
Piton was inaccessible, determined on that account
to climb to the top of it. Two of them were
never seen again; the third reached the summit,
planted an old Union Jack in the ground, and in-
stantly fell in mortal convulsions by its side. There
was no doubt that they perished by the bites of
snakes.
A steady breeze from S. S. E. wafted us along
within a mile's distance from the shore till we
passed the point of the Vigie, when we made a
short tack and cast anchor at the mouth of the Ca-
renage about six in the evening. Nothing could be
more delightful than this run. As we stood on the
deck of the moving ship, the objects on the coast
changed before us like the scenery in a diorama,
and their variety and quick transition were particu-
larly grateful to the eye, fatigued with the monotony
ST LUCIA. 115
of the ocean. The back ground continued woody
and mountainous, as I have described it before, but
every three or four miles we opened the most lovely
little coves and bays I ever saw in my life. At the
bottom of two of the largest of these were conside-
rable villages with five or six large merchantmen
lying at anchor, and the smallest of them were
fringed with fields of green canes, and enlivened
with the decent mansion of the proprietor, the cot-
tages for the negros, and one or two droghers taking
in their cargo from the plantation for some larger
vessel at Castries or elsewhere. I was much amu-
sed too with a flotilla of fishing or passage boats,
which, as we were going rapidly in a contrary di-
rection, shot by us like lightning. These boats are
very long, narrow and light, having two and even
sometimes three masts upon which they carry so
much sail that the men are obliged to sit on the
weather bulwarks to keep them from oversetting.
No regatta in England ever witnessed such despe-
rate sailing, and when it is recollected that, in the
event of capsizing, swimming will not save a man
from the sharks, there is sufficient danger to make
the thing interesting to young ladies.
By the by we caught one of these said sharks soon
after we got from under the Soufri^re. The mo-
ment he was seen under the stern, a hook with a
piece of bacon on it was thrown out to him, and we
anchored hka directly. His struggles were really
116 ST. LUCIA.
tremendous, and his jaw must have been tougher
than leather not to haVe given way before the furi-
ous jerks and flings which he made to free himself.
Two sucking fishes, which were clinging to his side,
never loosed their hold during the tempest which
the dying agonies of their master created, At
length a strong running knot was tightened round
his body, and he was drawn up to the mizen chains.
Even here the hampered animal was terrible, and
it was not without slow and watchful caution that
a sailor came within reach of it, and with a long
and sharp knife stabbed it in the neck. He then
cut off the head and one of the fore-fins, and, slip-
ping the knot, dropped the bloody and yet writhing
mass to the bottom of the Atlantic. The men now
looked out for some good luck, and lo ! the wind
which had been light and baffling because three
clergymen, or reckoning a bishop at two, four cler-
gymen were on board, came round steady and fresh
on the starboard quarter because they had killed
a shark.
We landed at the wharf at the bottom of the Ca-
renage, and, mounting as many of Major Shaw's
horses as we wanted, set off upon our journey to
Government House. He who has ridden to and
from the Corral v ought not to fear riding any where
or in any manner, yet 1 own that I expected to
break my bones that evening in ascending or de-
scending the awsome causeway which leads from
the town up to the mountain station 6f Colone
ta
ST. LUCIA. 117
Blakewell's residence. This perilous road lies in
a zigzag of acute angles, comme §a —
ZenitK..
Government House.
Castries.
Nadir,
and, as it rains nine months out of the twelve in. St.
Lucia, there are deep bricked trenches or channels
traversing the path at each turn for the double pur-
pose of carrying off the water and of checking a re-
dundant population. But when I got to the top —
oh never will that moment be forgotten by me ! I
remember staring without breath or motion as if I
had been really enchanted. I never saw heaven so
close before. The sky did not seem that solid
cieling with gold nails stuck in it which it does in
England, but a soft transparency of showery azure,
far within which, but unobscured by its intervention,
the great Stars were swimming and breathing and
looking down like gods of Assyria. Not only Ve-
nus and Sirius and the glorious Cross of our Faith
in the south, and
Charlemaine amongst the starris seaven
low in the north, shone like segments of the Moon ;
but hosts of other luminaries of lesser magnitude
flung each its particular shaft of splendour on the
11*
118 ST. LUCIA.
tranquil and shadowy sea. As I gazed, the air burst
into atoms of green fire before my face, and in an
instant they were gone ; I turned round, and saw all
the woods upon the mountains illuminated with ten
thousands of flaming torches moving in every di-
rection, now rising, now falling, vanishing here, re-
appearing there, converging to a globe, and disper-
sing in spangles. No man can conceive from dry
description alone the magical beauty of these glo-
rious creatures ; so far from their effects having been
exaggerated by travellers, I can say that I never
read an account in prose or verse which in the least
prepared me for the reality.
There are two sorts, the small fly which flits in
and out in the air, the body of which I have never
examined; and a kind of beetle, which keeps more
to the woods, and is somewhat more stationary,
like our glow-worm. This last has two broad eyes
on the back of its head which, when the phosphores-
cent energy is not exerted, are of a dull parchment
hue, but, upon the animal's being touched, shoot
forth two streams of green light as intense as the
purest gas. But the chief source of splendour is a
cleft in the belly, through which the whole interior
of the beetle appears like a red hot furnace. I put
one of these natural lamps under a wine glass in my
bed-room in Trinidad, and, in order to verify some
accounts, which I have heard doubted, I ascertained
ST. LUCIA. 119
the hour on my watch by its light alone with the
utmost facility.*
We drank tea at the Pavilion, one of the best
houses in the West Indies. It is situated on a ter-
race almost at the edge of the cliff, and the prospect
from it by the light of an interlunar sky was most
beautiful ; the long and deep bay, the broken
peninsula of the Vigie, the sea beyond with the
Pigeon Rock, the town glimmering with lights, and
the dark woods and mountains behind.
If the blood of those thrice gallant men which
has been shed like water on the Vigie and Morne
Fortune was not to be shed in vain, much must be
done to render St. Lucia a valuable acquisition to
England. At present it is a British colony in little
more than the name. The religion is Romish, and
the spirit of its ministers bigotted and intractable.
The people are French in language, manners #nd
feelings. No progress has been made in amalgama-
ting the two nations ; nay, every attempt at it has
been openly thwarted by the Romish clergy.
They have no schools themselves, and they forbid
any of their flocks to attend one in company with
: '
* In Port of Spain they tell a story of a lady appear-
ing at a ball in a black silk gown with a splendid trim-
ming of fireflies. I forgot whether the poor things
were sprung through, like cockchafers, to keep them in
spirits.
120 ST, LUCIA.
Protestants. Those who can afford it send their
children to Martinique, the United States, or
France ; these return with French politics and
French predilections ; they submit sullenly to the
English dominion, and look forward to a change.
It is painful, yet it may be profitable, to contem-
plate the different conditions of Trinidad and St.
Lucia. We have conquered both from nations of
another language and of another faith. No local
legislatures stand in the way of improvement ; each
colony may be governed equally at our discretion.
In Trinidad there is no religious animosity of any
kind whatever; the Romish clergy are) enlightened
and liberal; the same school contains English,
Spaniards, and French, those who believe in and
those who laugh at Transubstantiation. The three
languages are spoken almost interchangeably, al-
though, as is most proper and necessary, the Eng-
lish is predominant and advancing. In Trinidad a
spirit of loyalty to the British crown has commenced
and will increase ; a permanency has been impressed
on the society, and the aspect of the colony, if I
may so express myself, is towards England. The
reverse of all this is the case at St. Lucia. The
difference is not entirely owing to the Governors.
It is true that Sir Ralph Woodford is a man of great
abilities, and has displayed for many years, in a cri-
tical situation, a largeness of conception, and a
mm
ST. LUCIA. 121
practical vigour of execution, which ought to insure
for him the favour of the crown, as it certainly will
procure for him the respect of his observant coun-
trymen. Colonel Blakewell is also an excellent
man, serious, firm and conciliating, and if good can
be done in St. Lucia, it will be done under his ad-
ministration of the government. Much is in agita-
tion ; a church is already commenced in Castries
and a school opened. The Bishop has sent a
clergyman to reside there, and I have no doubt,
when these two fountains of effectual reformation
come into regular action, that both the religion and
the language of Englishmen will advance towards
an ascendancy as they are actually doing in Trini-
dad. The chief thing that I would aim at, if I were
governor, would be the encouragement of the
knowledge of the English tongue ; for no society
will ever be one and entire in its affections so long
as nine tenths of the population speak a different
language from the remaining handful of their mas-
ters. The changes either in religion or language
that may be wrought in adults are trifling and
imperceptible ; the only effectual mode of operating
on the mass of a society is by teaching the children.
In the school in Port of Spain boys of various na-
tions read the authorized version of the New Testa-
ment and repeat the catechism of the Church of
England, and none but a practised ear could have
122 ST. LUCIA.
detected the vernacular tongue of the speaker.
Let there be an adequate school in Castries, with a
zealous and able master, and I am much mistaken
if the French will not by degrees, even in spite of
their priests, place their children in it rather than
leave them uneducated, or be at the expense of
sending them for instruction to any foreign country.
■s
BARBADOS
A. gallant breeze at S. E. carried us through the
Martinique channel with unusual facility, for it is
commonly a dead beat to windward. We passed
at some five miles from the Diamond Rock, and had
a full view of the southern shores of this beautiful
colony of the French. After making a long stretch
to the E. N. E., we put about for Barbados, and
had to contend the whole way with baffling winds
from the S. We returned by the leeward side of
the island into Carlisle Bay on Friday, the 15th of
April.
The characteristic beauty of Barbados is its
finished cultivation and the air of life and domestic
comfort which the entire face of the country pre-
sents. For this particular it is, without competi-
tion, the most delightful island of the Antilles ; and
though we had all been deeply impressed with the
magnificence of natural scenery so conspicuous in
Trinidad, Grenada, St. Vincent's and St. Lucia,
yet there was no one on board who did not confess
a secret satisfaction at getting back once more to
the palms and the white houses of the ancient
124 BARBADOS*
colony* The old motto of neither Carib nor Cre-
ole, is not true, for a Barbadian is probably the
most genuine Creole of the West Indies ; yet in
spite of that, there are many peculiarities in this
island which go a great way in justifying the appel-
lation of Little England.
People will differ in their estimates of the degree
of comfort enjoyed by the adult slaves, but Mr.
Buxton himself could not doubt the happiness of
the children. In the changeable climate of Bri-
tain, where infants must be wrapped up in frocks
and mantles and caps and shoes, we have no notion
of the vigorous precocity of life which is so com-
mon in the West Indies ; there the punchy little
Indian Bacchus stands up like a man in twelve-
months, and, instead of the unmindful vacancy of
our babies, stares at you with the good impudent
assurance which Raffael puts into the eyes of his
Child. They dance together in rings amidst their
fathers and mothers who may be working in the
farm court, and throw trash at each other, as Eton
boys do chestnuts or snow-balls. One naked
urchin ran full butt behind me, thrust his curly
pate through my legs, and looked up in my face
with irresistible impertinence. I believe I should
have licked the scoundrel if he had pushed me into
the pond, which he was near doing. Jerryjorimbo,
a particular ally of mine, must needs climb up my
back in order to pat my cheeks, and as to not
1
BARBADOS 125
shaking hands with every soul of them all, it would
have been such a piece of tyranny as would have
destroyed my sleep. Accordingly there was a
satisfactory communication of sweat between me
and some dozens of His Majesty's subjects and Mr.
Jordan's slaves. The nursery is a capital sight.
It is a large open room with the floor covered with
wooden trays, and in each tray a naked niggerling.
There they are, from the atom born to-day, up to
eight or nine months of age, from the small black
pudding up to a respectable sucking pig. Such
screaming, mewling, and grinning ! The venerable
nurse sits placidly in the middle, and administers
pap to the young gentlemen when they seem to
squall from hunger. They stuff children and tur-
kies in the same way by placing the victim on its
back in their lap, inserting a lump of the food in
the mouth, and then seeing it well down with the
thumb and fore finger. The negro women will
do this to excess, and there is no convincing them
of the evil consequences, though, it is notorious,
that this inordinate repletion is a common cause
of death amongst the young in the colonies.
In Barbados the slaves have no provision grounds
properly so called; these form a part of the estate,
and they labour upon them as on the rest of the
plantation. But they have all gardens of their own
which they may cultivate as they please, and a
dressed meal is always provided for them in the
12
126 BARBADOS- ¥
middle of the day, which is exclusive of their daily
allowance from the store of the master. That they
have time to cultivate their patches of land is clear
from the fact that they always are cultivated 5 either
yams, Indian corn, plantains, or even canes, are to
be seen growing round every hut. The hut is a
cottage thatched with palm-branches and divided
into two rooms ; one is the chamber of the parents,
the other the common hall, with a table, chairs, and
a broad bench with back to it for the children to
sleep on at night. Some huts are larger and smart-
er than this. Jack something or other, the driver
on the Society's estate, has two large four post beds,
looking glasses and framed pictures. Jack is a
good-natured fellow, offered me some wine, and
hath begotten twelve children or more.
I resided a month or five weeks in Barbados in
great comfort, except that I caught a fever, and was
laid up in ordinary for a fortnight thereupon, but
bleeding, castor oil and spunging, put off the evil
day, and I was well enough to go to Lady Wardens
last ball ; an instance of prudence which I do not
recommend for general imitation. The Bishop
was kind enough to take me with him on his visita-
tion of the northern part of his diocese, and we set
sail in the Eden again on Tuesday evening the 17th
of May.
MARTINIQUE
At noon of the 19th we made the Diamond tlock
again, and sailed close under it about four in the
afternoon as we were drinking our wine and eating
pineapples. This memorable crag is shaped like
a ninepin with the point a little broken at the sum-
mit. There is a good passage of a furlong in length
between it and the shore, and anchorage within five
yards of its sides. All the world knows, or ought
to know, that surprising feat of hoisting up a thirty-
two pounder from the top-sail yard-arm of a man of
war in the last war, and of mounting it on this peri-
lous fortress; and how Captain Morris drove the
French mad by his indefatigable attentions to their
trading craft. They swore by the gods of Marti-
nique to carbonado the sacre Anglais with his pop-
gun, but the bete held his own like a good fellow
and true as he was, and the whole fleet fired at him
as they might have done at the mound at Woolwich.
In fact it was impossible to storm the apex of a fir-
cone with twenty bdld men upon it, and so they
turned the seige into a blockade, and proceeded to
starve the sacre Anglais. Now the Captain, like
128 MARTINIQUE.
the rest of his countrymen, could bear any thing
better than short commons ; indeed, with corn beef
and a glass of grog, I should like to know what he
would not bear ? He held out as long as the beef
and the rum lived, no relief appeared, a man must
eat, and certainly one gallant English sailor, not to
say a dozen of them, is worth all the fortresses and
rocks and diamonds in the world. So Captain
Morris surrendered His Majesty's thirty-two poun-
der to a fifty gun frigate, and lived to drive the
Danes more mad from Anholt than he had done the
French from the Diamond. A hole is still visible
where they used to sleep, and a stump of the flag-
staff still stands to remind an Englishman of his
duty, and the Gaul of his confusion.
We passed slowly by the mouth of Fort Royal
Harbour, as the sun was setting in gold and lilac,
and the creeping wind just swelled the sky-sails and
royals into a graceful curve. This seemed, and I
believe it, one of the" safest and most spacious har-
bours in the West Indies or the world. I saw the
famous Pigeon Rock, La Ramire, which cannot be
taken, except by Britons, and even John will have
to sweat for it, I apprehend, in the next war.
There was lying at anchor a line of battle ship car-
rying the admiral's flag, two frigates, and five other
smaller men of war, which with the Venus, a very
fine fifty gun frigate, and a brig in the Bay of St.
Pierre, constitute a force that would give the French
i
MAJEgjJfa'IQUK. 129
for a time the undoubted mastery of the Windward
Sea, however inferior they might be after a month's
notice at Jamaica.
We stole along the coast quietly during the night
and anchored before St. Pierre at six in the morn-
ing. The face of the country round the town is
beautiful, smoothly rising in a green upland of canes,
intersected with winding roads and dotted with
white houses, whilst a deep ravine on one side, and
precipitous mountains on the other, inclose the pic-
ture as in a frame. We landed after breakfast and
went to Betsy Parker's, one of that numerous tribe
of good-natured, laughing, peculiar hostesses, whom
West Indians rejoice in; women who are as cun-
ning and as obsequious to whites as if they were
negros, and as proud and despotic to negros as if
they were whites. Not that I mean to abuse their
mulatto or mestize ladyships ; far be that from me !
— Hannah Lewis (every one knows Hannah Lewis)
is very fat, and, I believe, tolerably respectable. A
young gentleman may, as I know, sleep in her house
salvo pudore, and she deserves commendation for
the same. I shall not criticize the morals of slat*
ternly Betsy or tight bosky Charlotte ; — things will
be — and the latitude and the sun — and the sailors
are so forward and impudent, — and besides Betsy
and Charlotte were born and bred under the ancien
regime, Consule Planco ; — mais on va changer tout
cela. are rsjjk not Mr. ?
12*
130 MARTINIQUE.
Sabina Braids is as round as a hogshead of sugar,
and sits all day by her kitchen door, as Milton said
of her, like a lady in the centre of her fat. Her
house is hot.
Fanny Collier is a good soul and fat enough, but
•she has lost custom lately to Hannah.
Quse cum ita sint, I recommend Miss Lewis' Ho-
tel to the stranger in Barbados, but Betsy and Char-
lotte, you know, are no concern of mine.
After having paid my respects to good Baron, or
Comte Donzelot, (these titles are equally trumpery
like Esquire or Gentleman in Ireland,) a polite old
soldier, who is as kind to the English as Jacob of
Guadaloupe is uncivil and Gaulish, I rambled about
the town to buy gloves, coral, and other vanities.
It is a pretty place, certainly, with high houses, the
streets generally in right angles, and water running
on either side of them. Before M. Donzelot's
house is a terrace, shaded with an avenue of trees,
and pleasantly looking on the sea. The houses
have more of an European air than in our English
colonies, and I must notice with praise the exist-
ence of four book-seller's shops, as large and well
furnished as any second rate ones in Paris. The
sight of books to sell in the West Indies is like wa-
ter in the desert, for books are not yet included in
plantation stores for our islands. The cause is
this. The French colonists, whether Creoles or
European's, consider the West Indies as their coun-
MARTINIQUE. 13 J
try ; they dlst no wistful looks towards France ;
they have not even a pacquet of their own ; they
marry, educate, and build in and for the West Indies
and the West Indies alone. In our colonies it is
quite different ; except a few regular Creoles, to
whom gratis rum and gratis coloured mothers for
their children have become quite indispensable,
every one regards the colony as a temporary lodg-
ing place, where they must sojourn in sugar and mo-
lasses till their mortgages will let them live else-
where. They call England their home, though
many of them have never been there ; they talk of
writing home and going home, and pique themselves
more on knowing the probable result of a contested
election in England, than on mending their roads,
establishing a police, or purifying a prison. The
French colonist deliberately expatriates himself;
the Englishman never. If our colonies were to
throw themselves into the hands of the North Ame-
ricans, as their enemies say that some of them wish
to do, the planters would make their little triennial
trips to New York as they now do to London. The
consequence of this feeling is that every one, that
can do so, maintains some correspondence with
England, and when any article is wanted, he sends
to England for it. Hence y except in the case of
chemical drugs, there is an inconsiderable market
for an imported store of miscellaneous goods, much
less for afc assortment of articles of the same kind.
132 ^MARTINIQUE.
A different feeling in Martinique produifes an oppo-
site effect; in that island very little individual cor-
respondence exists with France, and consequently
there is that effectual demand for books, wines,
jewellery, haberdashery, &c. in the colony itself,
which enables labour to be divided almost as far as
in the mother-country. In St. Pierre there are
many shops which contain nothing but bonnets, rib-
bons and silks, others nothing but trinkets and toys,
others hats only, and so on, and there are rich
tradesmen in St. Pierre on this account. Bridge
Town would rapidly become a wealthy place, if
another system were adopted : for not only would
the public convenience be much promoted by a
steady, safe and abundant importation, and separate
preservation of each article in common request, but
the demand for those articles would be one hundred
fold greater in Bridge Town itself than it now is on
the same account in London, Liverpool, or Bristol,
when impeded and divided and frittered away by a
system of parcel-sending across the Atlantic. Sup-
ply will, under particular circumstances, create de-
mand. If a post were established in Barbados, or
a steam-boat started between the islands, a thou-
sand letters would be written where there are one
hundred now, and a hundred persons would inter-
change visits where ten hardly do at present. I
want a book and cannot borrow it; I would pur-
chase it instantly from a bookseller in n^y neigh-
MARTINIQUE. 133
bourhood, but I may not think it worth my while to
sen4 for it over the ocean, when, with every risk, I
must Wait at the least three months for it. The
moral consequences of this system are even more
to be lamented than the economical, but I will say
more about that at some other time.
There are two very good churches in St. Pierre,
and both of them furnished with that mitigated idola-
try which so advantageously distinguishes the French
segment of the Papistical Heresy. I have great
hopes that the Bishop of Gerren will succeed in
getting rid of some of the absurdities in the Romish
worship in Trinidad. I know he disapproves them,
and the example of the sober splendour of the Pro-
testant Church in their neighbourhood will much
facilitate his endeavours.
It was too hot to walk to the theatre or ilie bo-
tanical garden, but I am told that they are both very
respectable.
The colored women here, as in St. Lucia and
Trinidad, are a much finer race than their fellows
in the old English islands. The French and Spa-
nish blood seems to unite more kindly and perfect-
ly with the negro than does our British stuff. We
eat too much, beef and absorb too much porter for a
thorough amalgamation with the tropical lymph in
the veins of a black ; hence our mulatto females
have more of the look of very dirty white women
than that j?feh oriental olive which distinguishes the
m
134 MARTINIQUE.
haughty offspring of the half blood of French or
Spaniards. I think for gait, gesture, shape, and
air, the finest women in the world may be seen on
a Sunday in Port of Spain. The rich and gay cos-
tume of these nations sets off the dark countenances
of their mulattos infinitely better than the plain
dress of the English. A crimson, green, or saffron
shawl cocked (cpwcLvra tivvsroTtii) on the head, and
bent back with sham jewels into a tiara, gives a vo-
luptuous and imperial air which always put me in
mind of the proud mistress of the governor of St.
Jago, with whom that sly old rogue Ligon was so
smitten.
Excellent Eau de Cologne of many qualities and
prices at Betsy Parker's ; the lowest sort sold for a
dollar a box, which contained six bottles. The
champagne at eighteen dollars really divine, and a
certain carmine nectareous creme de Chili much,
ah! much too blessed a drink for throats in a state
of moral probation.
I could get no fine kid gloves in the shops which
I visited ; a circumstance surely deserving much re-
prehension. Tight fitting gloves are amongst the
few things by which the French nation has bene-
fitted mankind, and the w6rld, which they have in-
sulted and corrupted, ha^e a right at least to their
kid and double-sewing as some recompense.
Upon the whole St. Pierre is a pretty andxiviliz-
ed town undoubtedly, but scarcely deserving the ex-
MARTINIQUE. 135
travagant commendations which are usually lavish-
ed upon it* It has attained the acme of its good
looks ; it can hardly be made more spacious or more
convenient in any respect than it is ; it is neat and
Frenchy, and it cannot be more. But Port of Spain
is even now a city in design, and its capacity for
improvement of every description is unlimited.
With a mole, which must, sooner or later, be built,
the magnificent and ever gentle gulf of Paria wash-
ing its walls, its freedom from hurricanes, and com-
manding position, I think the time will come when
Puerto de Espana, or Port of Spain, Colombian or
British, will more than rival every capital in South
America. About that time my book will be done
into smooth Spanish, and they will think me a
great prophet, and I shall enjoy my fame like the
people who ride upon clouds in Ossian.
And so fare thee very well, romantic Martinico,
with all thy green slopes of arrowy canes, thy woody
glens, thy aerial mountains ! I wish indeed my dear
countrymen had not shed their precious blood in
vain for thee, but still kindly good bye, bright
island ; I have a nook in my heart for thee with all
thy Frenchery.
DOMINICA.
We left St. Pierrfe on the 20th with a fresh breeze
at E. by S., but it soon died away as usual under the
lee of the island, and afterwards the wind was so
light that, like Columbus, we did not creep into
Roseau Bay till early on Sunday morning. There
was only one merchant ship lying at anchor with
two or three small sloops, and the few stragglers on
the shore with the dirty row of storehouses im-
pressed me with an idea of want and depopulation.
The scenery behind the town is beautifully grand 5
indeed the whole prospect from the edge of Morne
Bruce, a lofty table rock occupied by the garrison,
is one of the very finest in the West Indies. The
valley runs up for many miles in a gently inclined
plane between mountains of irregular heights and
shapes, most of which are clothed up to their
cloudy canopies with rich parterres of green coffee
which perfumes the whole atmosphere even to
some distance over the sea ; the river rolls a deep
and roaring stream down the middle of the vale,
and is joined at the outlet of each side by a moun-
tain torrent, whilst at the top, where the rocks con-
DOMINICA. 137
verge into an acute angle, a cascade falls from the
apex in a long sheet of silvery foam. Beneath, the
town presents a very different appearance from
what it does at sea; the streets are long and
spacious, regularly paved, and intersecting each
other at right angles ; there is one large square or
promenade ground, and the shingled roofs of the
houses, tinged with the intense blue of the heaven
above them, seem like the newest slates, and put
me much in mind of that clear and distinct look
which the good towns of France have when viewed
from an eminence.
Roseau is now in a most singular state of exis-
tence. Before the fire on the evening of Easter
Sunday, 1781, which that scoundrel Duchilleau
either originated or promoted, it must have been
the most commodious town of any in the islands;
but the tyranny and folly of the French under this
governor were so ruinous both to the colony in
general and the town in particular, that neither the
one or the other have in forty years been able to
recover their former prosperity. You may walk
along a street for half a mile ; the houses seem to
be complete but they are all closed; the grass
grows lush and verdantly between the stones, and
a tamarind tree, a *sandbox or a mangrove spreads
a rural shade under which a woman many be sitting
* Hura crepitans.
13
m
o
8 DOMINICA.
at wprk, or two children^playing* All is silent,
and soft and lifeless like H city iri the Arabian
Nights, which some vile Afrite hath stricken with
enchantment. I know no town in the world which
could be watered more copiously, easily and purely
than Roseau ; the river which runs at less than half
a mile's distance would, if they would just show it
the way, glide down the gentle declivity into every
man's washing bason. But I am afraid the spirit,
which should undertake this and many other obvi-
ous and facile improvements, is at present some-
thing drowsy in Dominica ; there is no public voice
to call forth or public encouragement to support
the exertion of individual virtue and talent: the
community is first divided by language, then by
religion, and the inconsiderable residue, which is
supposed to represent the whole, is so torn to pieces
by squabbles as bitter as contemptible, that the
mere routine of government was at a dead stand,
while I was in the island.
On landing with the bishop I met my hearty,
smiling, gallant friend John Bent, with left hand
arched upon his cap's brow, and his right drooping
his Peninsular sword to the sand that was unworthy
of it. Days, monftis, years have passed since I
was in the fifth form at Eton, what time, John
Bent, I used to give thee breakfast in my room at
Bristowe's, and thou wert wont in return to do thy
worst to make me and the minor tipsy at the mess-
-
&» • hi ■
DOMINICA. 139
room, Captain. Bent jk &m the most changeS "•tac-
tile two since then. Thou art married, it is true,
and art most happy with a wife and child in twelve
feet by six;* but thou wert then a man, a veteran
soldier, a practical liver on God's earth and mirth-
ful to boot ; so art thou now, though of course a
trifle steadier; but lack a day! what fine visions
and follies have vanished from my eyes ! how many
blithe games am I now unfit for ! what sweet and
light sleeps have I lost! what boyish comeliness is
gone! My golden time has been wasted, my ta-
lents neglected, my innocence tarnished, my
but no more of this ; I am not writing confessions.
The church in Roseau is well situated and to-
lerably finished without, but the interior is in a mi-
serable state. The common pitch pine, when un-
painted, has a particularly unpleasant effect in a
hot climate ; it always oppressed me in a remarka-
ble manner. About a hundred persons, chiefly co-
loured, attended the morning service; they had few
* I cannot refrain from saying that the accommoda-
tions for the garrison on Morne Bruce are infamous,
and in such a climate most cruel, especially to the offi-
cers ; the whole was a complete job, and reflects igno-
miny upon the contractor and great blame upon the pri-
mary department, be he or they who they may. If the
most gallant soldiers of the linfc are to b# exiled within
the tropicS for six years in order that oRiers may revel
in London at their ease, the least that the nation can do
for them is to see that no expense be spared to make
their service healthy and comfortable.
140 DOMINICA.
books, and apparently came for the purpose of see-
ingthe bishop; certainly, with one or two excep-
tions, they were entirely unacquainted with the or-
dinary ritual of the established religion. The
church of England indeed does not flourish in Do-
minica, which, considering the great capacity and
spirituous affections of the present worthy recum-
bent, is a matter of some surprise. I believe there
are 2,000 Protestants in this colony, of which num-
ber the Methodists form the larger part; about
16,000 are Papists under the care of three Spanish
priests; so that it is consolatory to the sympathies
of obese and liquescent men to know that if true
religion thrive not in Dominica, at the least its mi-
nister does upon an ample salary and just so much
breathing exercise o' Sundays as may conduce to a
good digestion for the rest of the week. Not that 1
would be thought to impeach the zeal of the rec-
tor of Roseau; very far from it; it is too well
known to be questioned, and it argues an unusual
degree of apathy or stubbornness in those who are
the daily witnesses of it that its effects are not more
perceptible.
Mr. Newman is great and remarkable, but he is
not so great and remarkable as his predecessor Mr.
Audain. This Mr. Audain was a patriot, few of
his cloth Hke him ; he was not content with praying
against the enemies of his country, h§ fought
against them also. St. Peter certamly owned a
^DOMINIC A. 141
boat, and the authorized translation (Mr. Audain
loved literal orthodoxy) intimates a partnership
amongst some of the apostles in a ship. So Mr*
Audain built a schooner, and carried on for many
years a system of practical polemics with the dis-
putants of the French school to his own abundant
profit and notoriety. It is even yet fresh in the re-
collections of the inhabitants of Roseau, with how
joyful a rapture this holy Dominican once broke off
the service on a Sunday, unable to repress the emo-
tions of his triumph on seeing the vessel of his
faith sail into the bay with a dismasted barque laden
with sugar, rum and other Gallic vanities from Mar-
tinique.*
* This is like the Cornish vicar. He was preaching
one afternoon in a seaside church during a heavy south
west gale, when all on a sudden his audience began to
move, take down their hats, and press towards the door.
The vicar, having the advantage of pulpit eminence and
long experience, immediately perceived the cause, and,
animated with a just indignation at their conduct, or-
dered them, as they valued their souls' welfare, to re-
main quiet till the end of the sermon. The good man
in his eagerness to restrain them even left the pulpit,
and, like Aaron, ran into the midst of the congregation
rebuking and exhorting them, till he reached the porch ;
when, tucking up his gown under his arm, he shouted
out, " Now, my boys, let us start fair!" and immedi-
ately scampered off, with his flock at his h^ls, to admi-
nister Cornish relief to ^distressed merchantman.
My friend Mr. Oxley in Barbados says he was present
at a scene in Tortola, where Audain figured in the man-
lier mentioned in the text; probably it happened twice.
13*
142 DOMIJYICA.
It was shortly after this event that the star of Au-
dain began to wax dim. His zeal was equally great,
his courage undaunted, but his evil destiny met
him at every turn. An acquaintance of mine met
him one day in the streets of Basseterre in St. Kitt's.
surrounded by negros, to whom he was distributing
plantains, yams, potatoes and other eatables, and
holding private talk with them all by turns. Hav-
ing caught my friend's eye, he came up to him and
said, " I am going to smuggle all these rascals
this evening to Gaudaloupe." He did so in his
schooner, but remained himself on shore. A pri-
vateer of Nevis captured the smuggler before she
could get to her market. Audain became furious,
went himself to Nevis, and challenged the owner of
the privateer to fight The challenge was not ac-
cepted, and Audain immediately posted the name
of the recusant, as that of a scoundrel, on the wall
of the court-house. He himself for two days kept
watch upon the platform with a sword by his side
and four pistols stuck in his belt, to see if any one
dared to touch the shields.
Audain fitted out another schooner and cruised in
her himself. But fate was too heavy for him,
though he struggled against it like a man. On the
second day a large vessel was seen to leeward ; he
ascertained her to be a Spanish trader, and, suppo-
sing her to be wholly unarmed, bore down on her
as upon a certain prey. When he came within
DO}fitfICA. 14?/
pistol shot, fourteen masked ports were opened and
as many guns pointed at him through them. Audain
was obliged t& strike in an instant, and, with his
carpenter, succeeded in secreting himself under
some water casks in the hold of his schooner.
The Spaniards came on board and cut every man
in pieces, except Audain and the carpenter. These
two lay all night under the casks, but in the morn-
ing, upon further search, their asylum was disco-
vered. They were brought upon deck, and the
Spaniards were on the point of hewing them by
inches, when their captain exclaimed with rapidity.
4i Hold all ! this man's life is sacred, and the other's
too for his sake." Audain had formerly done the
Spaniard great service at St. Thomas', and it now
saved his own and his carpenter's life.
Up to this time, Audain, though occasionally non-
resident for the aforesaid reasons, had continued the
minister of Roseau. He was a singularly eloquent
preacher in the pathetic and suasory style, and he
rarely failed to draw down tears upon the cheeks of
most of those who heard him. His manners were
fin£ and gentle, and his appearance even venerable.
He was hospitable to the rich and gave alms to the
poor. But his repeated losses were such as to bear
a royal n^rchant down, and the Dominicans became
more scrupulous, and a governor came who knew
not Audain. So Audain abdicated the "pulpit of
Roseau,
144
■"*\
DOMINICA
Privateering and smuggling had failed; so now
he commenced honest trader. He went to St.
Domingo with a cargo of corn, sold it well and lived
on the island. But his star grew fainter and faint-
er. He quarrelled with two black general officers,
challenged them and shot them both severely.
Christophe sent for him, and told him that, if the
men recovered, it was well, but that, if either of
them died, he would hang him on the tamarind tree
before his own door. Audain thought the men
would die, and escaped from the tamarind tree by
night in an open boat.
He now settled in St. Eustatius, put on his black
coat again and recommenced clergyman. St. Eu-
statius is a free port; yet the division of labour has
made surprisingly slow advances in it. There were
many religions, but no priest, in the island when Au-
dain made his appearance there. He was become
liberally minded by misfortune, and he was always
actuated by a faith of such immense catholicity that
it comprehended within its circle every radiation of
opinion from the centre of Christianity, as the felly
embraceth the spokes of a wheel. Audain offered
to minister to all the sects respectively, which the
fiee traders thankfully accepted. In the morning
he celebrated mass in French, in the forenoon read
the liturgy of the Church of England, in the after-
noon sprackened the Dutch service, and at night
fall, chanted to the methodists.
DOMINICA. 145
His star descended proner and proner though he
seemed to be gaining wealth and fame, Audain
was a married man, but his wife resided and still
resides at Bristol. A Dutch widow, rich, pious
and large, cast a widow's eye on Audain ; the rigor
of Creole viduity softened under the afternoon
sprackenings of Audain, as Dutch butter melts
under the kisses of Titan, and she told Audain that,
if Heaven had made her such a man, she would
have married twice. The hint was a9 broad as
herself, but Audain liked it the better for its dimen-
sions, and married her on the spot, sprackening the
service himself.
Audain has fought thirteen duels, and is a good
boxer. Once upon a time, he fired twice without
hitting ; upon which he threw down the pistol on
the ground, and said sternly to his second, " Take
care that does not happen again !" supposing his
pistol had not been charged with ball. A delay
occurred in reloading for the third time, upon which
Audain went up to his antagonist, squared his body,
and "saying, " Something between, something be-
tween, good sir!" knocked him down with a flush
hit on the nose.
Audain is now about sixty years of age, and has
wholly reformed his manners. He loves his Dutch
wife, and says his prayers so loud at qight as to dis-
turb his neighbours. His English wife sends him a
Christmas box annually. He is a man of infinite
146
DOMINICA.
talent, and has seen the world. I trust the report
is true, that, like Lazarillo de Tormes and Gines
de Pasamonte, he is writing a life of himself. It
would be the most entertaining book of this age.
If he does not, these few lines may haply serve to
rescue him from an oblivion which he does not
seem to deserve.
Early on Monday morning I started on horse-
back with my good friend Mr. Nisbett to visit his
estate. The ride was most delightful. We went
up the valley, forded the Roseau river twice, and
pursued an irregular path cut in the side of the
mountains. I was particularly struck with the
size of the ferns ; there were whole forests of
them in the dips and recesses of the hills, and I
think most of the separate trees stood twenty or
twenty-five feet in height. Yet with these extra-
ordinary dimensions the branches were as finely
pennated and as daintily angled as any which I
have seen in England, and their colour fresh and
vivid beyond description. This is especially owing
to the abundance of water which all the year
round is running down the declivities, and diffusing
a coolness of temperature which almost chilled me.
I suppose Dominica is the best watered of the
Caribbee islands. The wild plantain also was
very conspicuous in the mass of greenery with its
immense leaves rent into slips, its thick bunches of
fruit, and the scarlet receptacle of the seed hanging
DOMINICA. 147
quaintly down the stem of the tree by a twisted
rope. I do not exactly understand whether this
wild plantain is another species of the Musa, or
simply that sort of variety which is introduced by
the want of culture and an improved mode of pro-
pagation. The plantain is one of the most charac-
teristic productions of the tropics ; this and the
palms in shape, and the aloes and cactus in size
have no parallels in Europe.
After a long ride we came to Mr. Nisbett's coffee
works and rested ourselves a space in his barrack.
Here, more meo, I devoured four oranges and half
of an imperial pine, and absorbed certain sangaree,
a practice evil in principle, but, as I have found,
justifiable upon particular occasions. The situa-
tion was a clean terrace, jutting out from the breast
of the mountain which rose to a great height above
it. Palm trees stood around, coffee bushes flou-
rished upon the declivities, and cascades of water
burst through the close vegetation on the ground
too precipitous to be planted. Below lay the
valley, the silver waterfall gleamed through an
avenue in the hills, and magnificent piles of rocks,
sometimes black and bare, sometimes green with
countless traceries of creepers, formed the scene
right opposite. As I have said before, planters are
not poetical; but, my heart! if I possessed this
place, methinks, while young morning blushed, or
high noon>slept, or gentle dewy evening made
148 DOMINICA.
nature think and pause, I would stroll upon my ter-
race, or sit, three parts recumbent, on one of those
old oak chairs with Hastings' coronet on it, and for-
get the world of strife and penury and pain, till I
lapsed into a citizen of the other world of peace
and plenty and joy ! 2was 6Wp.
From this spot I perceived the smoke ascending
from two different soufrieres a little higher up the
mountains, and after we had ridden some way far-
ther on, the smell of the sulphureous exhalations
became very strong. Soufriere is the common
name in the West Indies as well for the active vol-
canos of St. Vincent's and Guadaloupe, as for
those numerous quarries of hot sand and springs of
boiling water, which are themselves either the
remains of ancient craters, or the imperfect erup-
tions from a soil highly impregnated with volcanic
elements. 1 went down into both of these, though
it was difficult to find any ground sufficiently solid
to bear a man's weight : the water was in a state
of violent ebullition at one source, and perfectly
cold at another six feet from it. The soil was so
hot that 1 was obliged to be continually lifting up
my feet, like a bear learning to dance, and the
fumes of the sulphur were so penetrating and the
heat altogether so intense, that 1 really felt a chill-
ing change on the surface of my body upon return-
ing again to the cloudless light of a vertical sun at
noon. I collected some exquisite crystals, but I
domimca. 149
could not preserve them in my rambles. I drank
some of the water from the hot spring after it h;ul
cooled ; it was transparent and insipid. There are
<ome ponds close by which are clear and cold with-
out any symptoms of existing volcanic action, though.
! suppose, originally derived from it.
Much of the country about this part is covered
with coffee bushes, and here and there are patches
of cacao. Mr. Nisbett intends to cultivate the lat-
ter more largely. The galba is chiefly planted for
fence and shade, and a beautiful thing it is. The
bois immortel is used here for marking boundaries,
but it is an inferior and inconsiderable tree in com-
parison with the magnificent native of Trinidad.
Land crabs crawl in great numbers across the
roads, and the crapauds, enormous frogs of the co-
lour and size of about ten fat toads, are eaten by
those who like them. It is the most unbearable
beast I ever saw. I can hardly think of it now
without being qualmish. I can eat monkey, snake
or lizard; there is not much in that; but verily to
munch and crush and squeeze ... gah ! it is down-
right cannibalism and popery. Dear brethren, have
ye not yams, plantains, eddoes ? ye are called Chris-
tians !
Upon my return to Government house the chief
Popish priest called on us. I believe his name is Ji-
meo; he is a South American and speaks three or
four languages in parts without apparently knowing
14
•
150 DOMINICA.
even one completely. They tell ludicrous stories
of his polyglot jargon in Dominica, and certainly
the specimen I had of it was at least very curious.
It was something in this style.
" Como esta, Monsieur ? J'espere que usted se
porte vary well. II fait mucho calor aqui. Es
preciso que usted tienne bon cuidado de yoursel,
nam sol est violens. Ah ! gracias, senor ! Dulcc
vinum est quasi lac senis hominis, c'est a dire;...
entiende usted le Latin ? 55 -
" Un poco."
" Ah ! j'ai dit que el dulce vino es la leche de un
viejo. Le Latin est good ting, muy good know-
ledge ; sin el Latin rien to be done."
" Usted, senor, loquitur Latin as elegamment
como the Espanol seu French."
" Ah ! vous me flattez, sir. Todo lo que yo ten-
go, je Pai appris en Venezuela ; mais ce fut quando
la Venezuela estaba floreciente debajo del cetro
del gran rey de Espana ; pero toga cedit armis ; no
hay ninguna ciencia a preseht dans ces pays-la ; sum
valde tristis sometimes de hoc, car yo tengo beau-
coup d'amour de mi patria; pauvre Am^rique!"
However I am told he is a worthy man, and I am
bound to say that a general good report was given
of the sobriety and temperate zeal of the Romish
priests in the colony. I believe the bishop of Ger-
ren expressed himself well satisfied with this part
of his diocese, which, until the light of the Gospel
DOMINICA. 151
can be made to shine in the darkness of Popish he-
resy, is quite as much as can be expected.
There are a few families of the aboriginal Ca-
ribs living on the windward side of the island, but
they have scarcely any intercourse with the rest of
the population, and all I learned about them was,
that they were gradually decreasing from a continu-
ed system of intermarrying within a very narrow
circle.
Some of the French Creoles in this colony 4 are men
of considerable wealth ; they live retired on their
estates, but are withal hospitable and fond of a good
deal of feudal display. The contrast between the
English and French colonist is nowhere more
strongly seen than in Dominica.
They consider wet or dry weather, each quite
exclusive of the other, as healthy, but irregular rain
and sunshine usually induces ague and intermittent
fevers.
We took our leave of General Nicolay and his
accomplished lady at nine at night, rowed to the
Eden which had been lying on and off for some
lime for us, and steered for Montserrat.
MONTSERRAT
H e stole slowly under the high ridges of Dominica
during the night, and were only just clear of the
northern extremity of the island by the morning.
Then the breeze freshened at E. by N., and having
crossed the scene of the action between Rodney
and de Grasse in 1782, where Tom Rowland, the
mason in my town, lost his precious leg by a splin-
ter, we passed gaily by the Saintes, some rocky
islets belonging to the French, but which were
chiefly occupied during the war by the English for
the purpose of refitting, when it might have been
difficult to beat up to English Harbour. In the
Grande Sainte there is a pottery and a few canes.
Marigalante lay on the horizon due east behind the
Saintes. At three p. m. we breasted the southern
point of the great island of Gaudaloupe, and, as the
wind came round freer, we ran into the roadstead
before Basseterre, and dashed gallantly by the.
Frenchman within fifty yards of the shore. I be-
lieve the folks thpught we were going to cut out a
merchantman, or run ourselves against the shingles
or fun. It seemed a very pretty town, and, I am
MONTSERRAT. 153
iold, is a most convenient one ; there was an agree-
able show of trees peeping over the tops of the
houses, and the hospital built by the English, and
the governor's mansion were conspicuous at the
northern end. This hospital is said to have been
since destroyed in the hurricane of July, 1 825, when
230 persons or more perished in various miserable
ways. The garrison at Prince Rupert's bay in Do-
minica suffered at the same time considerably.
The country, though apparently very fine, had not
quite so finished an air of cultivation as in Marti-
nique, but its features were bolder and more magni-
ficent. Some of the planters' houses were upon a
larger scale, and more attention to comfort in the
adjoining premises seemed to be displayed than i^
usual in the English colonies. The wind fell, as it
almost always does, under the long lee of the high
land, and it was about seven a. m. of the 25th, be-
fore we cast anchor in the open road of Plymouth.
I must needs say I have a vehement desire to
abuse this island through thick and thin. , I declare
T cannot to this day think of the ducking I got upon
first landing or rather watering at Plymouth with-
out an emotion of anger, which forces me to leave
my chair and take three or four turns up and down
my room before my pulse sinks to its usual quiet
pitch. Though a jetty or pier might be constructed
with a trifling expense by simply* rolling a few large
blocks of the stone, which abounds on the spot.
14*
15 4 MGNTSERRAT .
into the water, jet these provoking people would
rather that themselves and every human being, who
visits or leaves their island, should get drenched,
than stir one step towards erecting it. In fact they
rarely go from the shore themselves, and they are
fools enough to be amused with the misadventures
of others. And then like true Creoles, what they
are to indolent to do, they conveniently declare is
impossible to be done at all. Here's a pretty thing !
They call their island the Montpelier of the West
Indies, (in verity no great compliment,) and when
invalids, rheumatics and others, lured by the name,
come for relief to breathe its air, the first thing they
have to undergo is a forcible anabaptism in salt
water, and then to be converted into drying horses
for their clothes under a tropical sun. I am sure it
is a subject of particular thanksgiving to me, that I
did not for ever lose the use of my shoulders and
knees on this occassion. Captain Lawrence had
severe rheumatism in his left elbow for a week
afterwards. I have been trying to make a begin-
ning to this end of a verse,
et inhospita littora Montis
Serrati ,
but it is miserable to feel how quickly all that Eton
craft goes out of the fingers. However I mean to
be very savage, and I speak my mind the more
freely, because in many other respects I admire
Montserrat, and regret that a nuisance should be
i
MONTSERRAT. J5
suffered to exist in the threshold of this lovely little
country, which must ruffle the temper of any one
who is made of flesh and blood, and moreover hath
the rheumatism. I am not vindictive; no! I have
not a particle of the thing in my nature ... I have
a grateful recollection of the turtle at the Court
House, though we were kept for our dinner so long
that any thing but that exquisite soup would have
come too late ; the Madeira too was pure and
milky, and the beer clean. These things do not
pass from my mind as they do from my body ; they
have a post-existent life with me, and I refer to
them frequently for the purposes of contrast, simili-
tude, or the reviving of my affections.
It is indeed commonly but, I apprehend, hastily
said, that turtle is eaten in greater perfection in
England than in the West Indies. The cookery, I
confess, is more studied and elaborate, more science
is shown in the anatomy, and superior elegance in
the dishing. Besides, it is a greater rarity, and its
visits, few and far between, leave something of an
angelic smack upon the palate of a worthy recipi-
ent in England. But setting aside this last advan-
tage, or rather justly esteeming plenty a blessing, a
man of unprejudiced appetite will have no difficulty
in deciding in favour of the consumption of turtle
on the spot of its birth. The nature of this fine
animal is not understood by European cooks ; they
distrust the genuine savour, and all but annihilate it
156 MONTSERRAT.
by bilious additaments of their own composition.
The punch too, though pleasurable per se, is drunk
so largely as to wash out all remembrance, all rumi-
nation of the past, and I have seen some persons
so grossly ignorant as to drink once or even twice
before they have finished their soup ! This should
not be. A single lime is sufficient ; squeeze it and
cut it in slices afterwards over the various regions
of your plate. The soup should be served up in
a capacious tin shell, and should always be well
lined inside with a thin crust of pastry ; the worst
consequence may follow upon the neglect of this
last particular, for the liquor becomes lukewarm,
tenuous and watery, by immediate contact with
ware or metal. In England I have always found
a crassitude, a pinguedinous gravity in the meat
which makes one repent the having eaten it; it
enervates the body with a sort of dry drunkenness,
Atque affligit humi divinae particulam aurse.
In the West Indies turtle is a generous food cer-
tainly, but honest and unsophisticated ; it adminis-
ters in a small space that nourishment which the
great exhaustion of the system requires, and there
is a freshness and a recency in it, which quickens
the palate and invigorates the organs of taste. At
a dinner in England, it must be, as they say and do
in the city, turtle once and turtle throughout; a
man indeed has no heart or appetite for any thing
MONTSERRAT. 157
else after so much acid punch and morbid soup as
is absorbed there. In the West Indies turtle is a
gentle alarum, as from a silver trumpet blown ; it is
the proparasceve of our manducatory energies,
the regretted prophagomenon of Apicius. A glass
of Madeira (it should be Sercial, if possible) is the
best thing after this soup ; the wine flows in a kindly
stream of coalescence with what has been eaten
before, and harmonizes with what is to follow ; lime
punch creates a discontinuance, as the lawyers say,
and in effect spoils your dinner.
Abb£ O'Hannam, a tall Irish Romish priest, gave
the health of the Bishop of Jamaica, and talked
about our eminent prelate and so on. It was bad
taste in Abbe O'Hannam to dine with us at all, but
it was gross in the Abbe to give such a toast. The
compliment was uncalled for from him, and nobody
could think the Abb£ sincere in what he said.
The Protestants and Papists are as good friends
in Montserrat as they are in Ireland. Indeed the
faithful Catholic here has anticipated the fruits of
emancipation; he considers it highly absurd to
suffer himself to be deprived of great political
advantages for the sake of a few oaths, when a
priest actually resides in the island ; and accord-
ingly, having called God to help him as he utterly
disbelieves, Transubstantiation, he marches into
the House of Assembly, and there gives his vote.
Nothing can be easier than this process, and I
158 MONTSERRAT.
publish it here for the benefit of all the Irish,
English and Scotch Papists, who may not have
patience to wait till Parliament open the doors of
legislation to them. I could not ascertain the num-
bers of the adherents of the Romish church in
Montserrat. Abbe* O'Hannam says there are
4,000; the President told me there were forty.
They intermarry, and in most cases the Abbe
loses; a thing which the Abbe* should look into,
for the reverse takes place in England.
The negros here have an Irish accent, which
grafted on negro English forms the most diverting
jargon I ever heard in my life.
But if you ever visit Montserrat, good reader,
go, even if you have only one day, to the Soufriere.
I have seen a thousand beautiful things in the West
Indies, but I cannot even now think over my morn-
ing ramble to this Soufriere without feeling my
heart swell with love and sorrow that I shall never
see it again. Most of our party had gone off to
sleep on board, but the sight of the launch in a
canoe over and through the surf sickened me ; I
had no stomach for a repetition of the morning's
ducking, and independently of rheumatism, I knew
that
albo ventre lavari
was no joke to any one. So 1 accepted the hospi-
tality of the learned Dr. Dyett, and after a very
edifying and abundantly charitable discourse upon
MONTSERRAT. 15 ( J
[he quality and form of Popery, I snoozed away the
night in a barrack room in the Doctor's court yard,
oblivious of all sublunary things except the barking
of dogs. West India turtle lies light as a feather,
and claret is as thin as air; so by the first dawn 1
essayed to rise, what time shoeless and uncinctured
Betsy pushed her black eyes, yellow face and white
teeth through the door with " How you do, my mas-
sa ? La ! what white skin ! gee ! gee ! gee !"
;( Ay, Betsy," said I, " the colour would be worth
something to you ; but just at present go and get me
some coffee !" And so fortified, and mounting some-
body's horse, (many thanks to the unknown owner!)
I paced through the quiet old town, and having join-
ed my companion at the very worthy Mr. Luck-
cock's, we set out upon our excursion.
At first the road lay along the margin of the sea,
then wound inwards by a gentle acclivity towards
the mountains. It was like one of my native De-
vonshire lanes ; no primroses or violets were there
indeed, but the snowy *amaryllis drooped her long
and delicate petals like a lovesick girl ; the thrice
gorgeous hibiscus was unveiling his crown and fea-
thers of scarlet, and the light limes and darker
orange trees, which formed a verdant hedge on
either side, were exhaling their perfumed incense to
llim who made them so beautiful and so good, A
" Pancratia Carribbcea.
160 MONTSERRAT.
thin grey cloud obscured the sun, whilst an Atlantic
breeze blew gently and freshly upon my face and
open neck. The air was as cool as on a May morn-
ing in England, but so inexpressibly soft, so rare
and subtle to the senses that I think the ether which
angels breathe cannot be purer stuff than this. O !
Temples twain, Middle and Inner. O ! Courts,
together with all houses, outhouses, easements and
commodities thereunto appertaining, even then did
I think of you !
After this I nearly broke my neck in a dry gulley
which was about as good a bridle path as the steps
to the top of St. Paul's. I remember, when I was at
Eton, a great piece of work was made about an offi-
cer's riding up the hundred steps, and the discreet
Windsorians planted a huge post at the bottom to
prevent any such risk of life for the future ;. . .why,
the hundred steps are no more to be compared to
the last two miles before you come to the brink of
the Corral, or even to this poor gulley in Montserrat
than I to Hercules, a meeting house to a church,
Westminster to Eton, or any other equally appropri-
ate dissimile.
The gulley ended in one of those green Savanas
which nature has oftimes so mysteriously cleared in
the midst of the impenetrable virgin woods of tro-
pical regions. No difference of soil or situation
can be the cause; you may lean/your back against
the frontier tree of a forest which fro axe or torch
MONTSERRAT. 16 L
hath ever invaded, and stretch your body on the
meadow turf where scarcely a weed can be seen.
There is no man to fell these trees or divert their
growth ; there is no hedge or wall or trench to im-
pede their march ; but God said to the Forest as he
said to the Sea, " Thus far shalt thou go, and no far-
ther." The view was beautiful ; behind me the
woody mountain rose into the clouds, before me it
descended in a long grassy slope to the edge of the
sea ; on my left hand to the south, the broad and
irregular eminences of Guadaloupe presented the
appearance of a continent ; to the north Redonda
shone like an emerald in the midst of the blue
waves, and beyond it stood the great pyramid of Ne-
vis cut off from sight at one third from its summit
by an ever resting canopy of clouds. The wind
was so fresh, the air so cool, the morning dew so
healthy and spangling that I might have forgotten,
but for the deep beauty that was around me, that I
was still within the tropics. I seemed to have left
all languor and listlessness below, and really felt for
a season the strength, the spirits and the elasticity of
youthful life in England. At this spot I and my
companion (and he was a very pleasant one) tied
our horses to a tree and began to descend a circui-
tous and overarched path to the vale of the Sou-
friere.
This isavery|wild and romantic scene. The
whole of the bottom of the valley is broken into
M y 15
162 MONTSERRAT.
vast and irregular masses of clay and limestone
which are scattered about in the utmost confusion,
and render it a laborious task to scramble and leap
from one to another. The surface of the ground is
hot every where, and so much so near the streams
of water which ran between the fragments that I
could not keep my foot half a minute upon it. The
water at its source boils up violently, and very
gradually cools as it finds its way in a thousand
meanders to the sea. A thick vapour slowly rises
upwards till it meets the wind which cuts it off at a
straight line and drives it down to the coast. The
sides of the mounds of clay are entirely crusted with
pure alum, formed by the constant action of the sul-
phuric acid of the water and the exhalations. In
the midst of all this there is a green and luxuriant
vegetation of bushes and creepers ; some of the
flowers were marvellously beautiful, and seemed to
me to be peculiar to the spot. The mountains,
which rampart round this solitary glen, are of a skiey
height ; they appear indeed higher than they really
are, for their lancet peaks are never seen except
dimly and at intervals through the vast and moving
masses of clouds, which are first driven from the
east against the other side of the sierra, then are
pressed upwards, and at last come rolling and tum-
bling over the summits into the vale below. The
wood which clothes every inch of Chance's Moun-
tain is soft, level and uniform, feathering him with a
grasslike plumage as an Indian warrior, whilst every
MONTSERRAT. 163
branch and every leaf bend devotedly forwards to
the setting sun under the unceasing breath of the
Trade wind.
The people of Montserrat say they are very poor,
and, as their friend, I am fain to believe them ; for
surely nothing but the direst necessity could recon-
cile their generous hearts to the present accommo-
dations of their legislature and the unworthy desti-
tution of their respectable President. The Coun-
cil and Assembly of this island hold their important
deliberations in two rooms in which a Devonshire
farmer would scruple to hoard his apples ; and Mr.
Herbert, who has worn a cocked hat in their defence
for thirty years, has neither a bed to lie on allowed
to him, nor a table to feed on, nor a purse where-
with to purchase a few alleviations of the toils of
government. His Majesty's authority and His Ma-
jesty's revenue shine together with concentric rays
from the windows of His Majesty's Custom House.
No salary whatever is allowed to the President, and
it is only within a year or so that they have con-
sented to indemnify him for the expense of official
postage. Now I really must say that all this is dis-
creditable, or in the vulgar scandalous, or in the
vernacular blackguard ; it should be reformed alto-
gether. Let a plain Government House be built
or bought in the town, and a few hundreds of their
currency stuff added to make the head of their
community respectable, and enable him to entertain
i*
164 MONTSERfcAT.
the guests of the colony with propriety. There
is enough wealth in Montserrat to effect this, and it
concerns the reputation of the planters as gentle-
men, to do it.
The town of Plymouth to wit, is small, but many
of the houses are singularly well built of a fine grey
stone, and have a substantial and comfortable ap-
pearance. The jail is the ruinous remnant of an
old fort, a sort of parcus clausus where no man of
common humanity would imprison a transgressing
donkey. However they are accustomed to it and
know no better, as the old woman said of her eels
when she put them i' the paste alive ; " she rapped
'em o' the coxcombs with a stick, and cry'd, Down*
wantons, down," This precious devil's hole in the
wall should be put into the index expurgatorius of
my friend Dr. Dyett.
There are two churches in the island ; the first
within half a mile of the town is in very good con-
dition, which is not a little owing to the zeal and
even manual skill of Mr. Luckcock the rector of
the parish of St. Anthony. The other church in St.
Peter's parish is a good deal out of repair, and no
service has been performed in it for more than a
year. Effectual measures however have been taken
for putting the building into decent order, and
when that is done, another clergyman will be added
to the establishment of the colony.
e
There are 6,396 slaves in Montserrat, a consider-
able number of whom are entirely debarred froiQ
any mental instruction. This is the case with all
those who are unfortunately the property of a noted
Papist of great influence, and of other planters who
have the pusillanimity to sacrifice their consciences
to his contemptible prejudice. The residue are
taught the catechism by Mr. Luckcock, who also
preaches and expounds portions of Scripture to
them with more or less frequency according to the
distance of their residence from Plymouth. The
Bishop has lately placed a catechist under this wor-
thy minister's direction, and it is earnestly to be
hoped by every friend to the true interests of the
colony, that means will not always be wanting for
still further increasing the number and the influ-
ence of those, by whose exertions a religious and
moral spirit may be excited in the slaves, and the
peaceable subordination of the whole class be in-
sured.
The methodists will pardon the freedom I take
in expressing my suspicions that the evil, which
they have done upon the long run both at home and
abroad, is but scantly counterpoised by a certain
sobriety of exterior which they have inflicted on
their sect. One remark seems level to the lowest
capacity and the most sordid prejudice. The
planters in the West Indies profess to be apprehen-
sive of insurrection; nevertheless they admit secta-
15*
166 IBfOlSTTSERRAT.
rians of one denomination or another into their es-
tates ; tfie negros are a very curious and observant
race, and after they have learnt that there is a God,
the next thing they learn is, that their master does
not worship him in the same manner with them-
selves. They believe their worship is true, and
therefore they must think their master's false.
While they remain on the brink of civilization, this
will have but inconsiderable consequences, but the
Seeds are laid, a beginning is effected ; the individual
or his family becomes more knowing in process of
time; he perceives the ingredients of distinction
more clearly, and gradually and necessarily imbibes
that spirit of separation which religious schism is
sure to generate. Moreover a completely organiz-
ed espionage is a fundamental point in the system of
the methodists ; the secrets of every family are at
their command ; parent and child are watches on
each other, sister is set against sister and brother
against brother $ each is on his guard against all,
and all against each. In this manner these secta-
rians possess an army of dependants already lodged
within every house and fixed in the heart of every
plantation. Their dominion over these poor peo-
ple is as absolute as was ever that of Jesuits over
Jesuits ; the fear of being turned out of their class*
* Anguilla a man told me he was in God Almighty's
class, but that if the minister knew that he had been at
a dance, he would turn him down into the Devil's class.
Thus (worse than) fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
operates like the dread of losing the caste in Hin-
dostan, and the negros know that this formidable
power rests entirely with their ministers. That
this power has been abused I shall not at present
take upon me to assert ; that it may be abused to
the most fearful purposes I am sure. This is no
imaginary picture of my drawing; let the gentle-
men of Antigua say how this matter stands with
them ! Do they not sometimes look about them, and
speculate upon possible contingencies? Do they
not repent the encouragement ; do they not fear the
power of the methodists ? They will not deny it.*
* I never come alongside of the methodist spy-sys-
tem without thinking of poor Tom Smith's stanzas.
Tom was always humming them by himself, as Johnson
with " Aye ! but to die ." They allude to his own
experience of a practice not uncommon in the present
day.
I knew a maid who did always command
All her dear swains to a third gentleman
Them for to try, if they did keep pace
With the third gentleman's notions of grace.
Three the third gentleman plucked, and the third,
As Tve been told, was hardly deterred,
In arguend. about Hume et Calvinum,
A currend. ad argument, baculinum.
Last came a youth whom the third gentlemen
Chose for the husband ; he had a can
Of rottenness full and Predestinate Hell,
To make a young maiden live happy and well.
Passion o' me ! as John Suckling did. say,
That ever a lady should so throw away
MONTSERRATr
The planters, inasmuch as they are members -oft
the Church of England, are bound in conscience to
see that their dependants are instructed in the prin-
ciples of that church ; but, putting the obligation of
duty out of the question, it is palpable to common
sense that it is their present interest to do so. That
sooner or later the slaves in the British colonies will
all be fully and properly instructed, cannot be a
doubt with any one who quietly observes the signs
of the times ; a large number of them in different
places possess at this moment a measure of skill and
knowledge, of which their masters are not always
aware, and which the slaves value in proportion to
its rarity. The colonists have no more power to
arrest this slow but unceasing march of intelligence
than they could have to stop a mountain in its fall,
or divert a torrent in its downward course. They
would be crushed or drowned in the attempt, and I
am not sure that their fate in such a case would be
much lamented. Now, if there is one owner of
slaves who believes that sooner or later those slaves,
themselves or their descendants, will and must be
educated, is it not plainly his interest to bind them
■
Such a pair of blue eyes, such lips of delight
On an underhand, yellow-faced, Puritan wight —
And all for because this silly young maid
Was led astray by that artful old blade
The third gentleman ; — Devil him take,
And duck him and souse in his nethermost lake !
MONTSERRAT. 169
to him by every moral tie imaginable, an<| .feit not
as obviously dangerous to encourage or permit a
mode of education which necessarily tends to alien-
ate them from him ? Can there be a bond of con-
nexion more sacred or lasting than identity of reli-
gious worship; can there be a source of hostility
more sure or prolific than sectarian zeal ? At pre-
sent, the educated planter may despise the poor
black methodist slave ; but we may be sure, if an-
other system be not adopted, the time will come
when the methodist slave will be the methodist free-
man, and the power to coerce will precisely cease,
when the force and danger of license will more than
ever call for it.
That the methodists have done some present good
amongst the negroes in many of the islands I do not
deny ; it is partly a shame to England, and partly to
the colonial clergy that there was any acknowledg-
ed field for their services. But as an effective
church establishment has at length bee« commenc-
ed, and will, I most fervently hope, be perfected
and maintained, so the time should seem to be past,
when a Christian minister could think and say that
the souls of the slaves within his parish were not
within his cure. That time has been, but it is past,
or it is passing while I write. The pretence that
the numbers of the clergy were inadequate to such
a duty is more than half taken away ; the sophism,
(for so it appears to me,) that the teacher of a lower
170 MONT9ERRAT.
or, to speak plainly, of a more vulgar stamp is re-
quired for the uncultivated negros has been expos-
ed. I am yet to learn why erudition and good man-
ners are to disqualify a minister of the gospel from
teaching and humanizing a negro. Why will we
consent that our Christian religion, a religion which
enjoins courtesy and prudence as virtues, should
unnecessarily and through wilful neglect on our
parts be degraded, if I may so speak, and disfigured
by the ignorance and coarseness of men who neither
are, nor in any nation or age ever were, intended
for the ministry ? I am sure that quite as much dis-
cretion is necessary in the work of instructing the
slave population as in the known labours of attend-
ing to the spiritual wants of the free ; in fact, much
more is necessary ; for the course of the missionary
is through an undiscovered sea, where his charts
serve him not, and his experience is baffled by no-
velty; where the wisest may fail, but where the
wise is more likely to succeed and to succeed ef-
fectually than the rash, rude, although pious, men
whom the perverse benevolence of thousands at
home is yearly sending out with roving commissions
against the peace and tranquillity of foreign com-
munities.
But enough of this matter at present, for the
Eden is under weigh and has fired a gun and the
Captain's gig is waiting for us a cable's length from
the shore. So we will shake hands, pretty island ;
and now for another launch in a canoe !
JiONTSERRAT. 17 J
N. B. The pure old Montserrat rum, however
the market may be, is really a choicer spirit than
the Jamaica. Grog from this rum, with a dash of
lime or lemon juice, is a pretty tipple indeed-
cosa mayor, as the Dons say.
NEVIS.
We left Montserrat at noon on Thursday the 25th
with the wind very fresh at S.S.E., passed Redonda
in the mid-channel, which is well enough represented
in the charts as like a large haycock, except that it
is quite green, and cast anchor in the open bay or
road before Charlestown at five in the evening.
We did not land till early the next morning. The
appearance of Nevis is perhaps the most captiva-
ting of any island in the West Indies. From the
south and west it seems to be nothing but a single
cone rising with the most graceful curve out of the
sea, and piercing a fleecy mass of clouds which
sleeps for ever round its summit. It is green as
heart can conceive, perfectly cultivated, and enli-
vened with many old planters' houses of a superior
style and churches peeping out in the most pictu-
resque situations imaginable. A complete forest
of evergreen trees grows like a ruff or collar round
the neck of the high land where tiiltivation ceases.
On the north and the east the cone is not so per-
fect 5 it falls off in one direction in a long slope
which terminates in a plain towards the Narrows of
NEVIS. 173
St. Kitt's, and is broken to windward into one or
two irregular hills. Columbus is said to have given
the present name to this island from the mountain
of Nieves in Spain. Edwards supposes that a
white smoke issued in that age from a volcano now
extinct, but perhaps the vapours, which rest on the
summit, may more probably have suggested the
idea of snow. However, without thinking of snow
at all, Columbus may have simply transplanted a
favourite Spanish name with no more propriety
than when he called the neighbour island after the
famous mountain near Barcelona.
Charlestown is a larger, smarter and more popu-
lous place than the capital of Montserrat. It lies
along the shore of a wide curving bay, and the
mountain begins to rise immediately behind it in a
long and verdant acclivity. The Court House is a
handsome building with a square in front ; it con-
tains a hall on the ground floor for the Assembly
and the Courts of Law, and another room up-stairs
for the council. The public offices are all placed
at one end of the hall. The chairs for the mem-
bers, the table, railing and the whole furniture is
remarkably neat, and put me in better humour with
these notable legislatures than any thing I had seen
elsewhere. The town church is small and much
encumbered within, but the yard around it is plant-
ed with many evergreen trees and decently inclosed
with a wall. This last circumstance is so rare in
16
174 .NEVIS.
the West Indies, that its occurrence inspires great
pleasure and calls to mind the s^eet solemnity of
a country churchyard in England. Neither was
the eye shocked by any of those enormous vaults
above ground, which disgrace the burying places in
the Colonies, in beauty are inferior to lime-kilns,
and in pride beggar a Mausoleum. I know not
whether the Nevisians have yet arrived at such a
pitch of common sense as to admit their slaves and
coloured freemen to Christian burial in their church-
yards or not, but certainly very few parishes in any
of the islands have done so. Really, with defe-
rence to my betters, it seems to me that during the
present depression of the sugar market the gentle-
men and ladies of the colonies waste a great deal
of good money and labour in a very unnecessary
operation. For my part, when a white man and a
black man are both stone dead, I doubt if one be
much better than the other ; but grant that the
white carcase is worth the most, Lord bless you, my
white friends, you need not be so much afraid of
lying side by side with the blackest slave you have !
A time will come when one angel or another will
pick you up as clean as ever you lay down, and se-
parate you from Quaco as far as you shall wish !
Besides, remember that even yourbig lumpish bone
houses are in vain,
Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis sua fata sepulcris.
To the south of the town, at half a mile's dis-
Nevis. 175
iance, are situated the mineral baths on a rising
ground near the margin of the sea. The establish-
ment is very large, and can afford, as I was told,
accommodations for forty or fifty boarders. An
invalid with a good servant might take up his
quarters here with more comfort than in any other
house of public reception in the West Indies. At
present the thing does not answer, the building
being in fact too large and the depreciation of
colonial produce rendering it difficult to afford a
mineral spring illness. There are three spacious
plunge baths on terraces one above the other and
varying in their temperature from 50° to 100°
Fahrenheit. The lowest and largest is now given
up to the boarders and others as a turtle crawl.
There the poor flat gawky creatures flounce about
till they become sulphuretted to a certain culinary
degree, which is known by the Eatable beginning
to lose his equilibrium, and, instead of lying level
on the water, to sink half his body edgeways
under, and leave the other half an upright semi-
circle in the air. When this sign of the times
appears, the fortunate owner, impatient of the joy.
erects his head and snuffs the coming soup 5 —
Genialis agatur
Iste dies !
cries he, and now Turtle cannot reasonably expect
any thing better than death and dressing.
I rode entirely round this island with the exccj>-
?5T ;..
176 ";^' Nevis- . "/
tion of a mile or two *n the windward side, and
found it uniformly rich, verclarit and beautiful.
The roads are tolerable, though liable, in the low-
lands on the north, to be injured by floods. How-
ever, you may go whither you please in a gig,
which certainly must be allowed to be a great sign
of civilization. There were two steam engines
employed in grinding canes, a thing which I had
not seen any where else, except in Trinidad.
Surely where water and coals may be commanded,
the certainty and rapidity of making the sugar
would in the long run be worth the additional ex-
pense. How frequently does it happen upon large
estates that whole acres of canes are spoilt, or the
current year's market lost by the irregularity of
the wind ! Besides this, the saving of labour is im-
mense, though the steam is not turned in Nevis to
half the work it ought to do, and the planters should
remember that labour saved is labour got, and that
all the time which their slaves now consume in the
long lingering crop season under the windmill sys-
tem, might be employed in a superior and more
minute culture of the soil, in building and repairing
houses, in rearing more provisions of various sorts,
and in numberless other public works of necessity
or convenience for the non-fulfilment of many of
which at present they plead inability from want of
hands. To be sure there is so much statuquoitism
in the old colonies that fire will hardly burn some
NEVIS. 177
of their prejudices outof;their heads; bat in the
new colonies, whenever ffle estates are much and
generally undferlianded upon the old system, there
steam engines are and must be introduced, or the
cultivation of sugar will be abandoned.
It is difficult to say which island produces the
best pines. The ruby or blood pine of Trinidad
is the most magnificent in appearance ; the black
Antigua is perhaps the richest and most vinous in
taste 5 they have few pines in Barbados, but ever
and anon you may meet with one there which sur-
passes them both. The finest oranges are without
doubt to be found in St. Kitt's, Nevis and Montser-
rat; indeed, with the exception of the production
of these islands, there are no specimens of this
fruit so good as those which grow in Piccadilly.
In Nevis a man is always placed as sentinel in a
pinery, for otherwise those dogs the monkeys, who
are very good livers and know a ripe pine to a day,
are sure to take an evening walk from the mountain,
and will, I am told, fairly pick, pack, and carry
away all the eatable fruit in a garden at one visit.
Certainly Jacco is a rogue, a villain, a thief, yet
the fellow's cleverness is so great, his malice so
keen, his impudence so intense, that it exceeds the
hardness of my heart not to like him. You may
offer your fine green Seville oranges to him by
handsfull ; deuce o' bit of the rind of ten thousand
of them will Jacco touch ; no ! no ! massa — dem
178 .; .. .^nevis.
monkl&s* savey what bitter as well as buckra ! And
here I must take notice of the luncheon wejenjoyed
at Mr* Cottle's house, where the -pines and oranges
were most ambrosial. Here I learned how to eat
guava jelly. Let, it be served in a bell-mouthed
glass, pierce it with a knife, and pour Madeira (I
had Malmsey) into the fissure. The wine lubri-
cates and enlivens the guava, and entirely takes
away that mawkish sweetness which usually cloys
the palate of every person but a West Indian.
The temperature is so low upon the estates higher
up the mountain, that many European vegetables
are grown there, as sea-kale, turnips and carrots.
Mr. Cottle has, I think, peaches and strawberries
also. Indeed I have reason to believe that if any
persons thought it worth their while to make the
experiment with a proper attention to soil and
situation, a large proportion of the valuable trees
and culinary vegetables of countries lying in very
different latitudes might be interchangeably trans-
planted. Let it be considered that of the count-
less productions of the vegetable kingdom which
England now possesses, perhaps not two per cent,
are, what is called, indigenous to the soil ; the rest
have been imported by the labour of man. The
very commonest of them all, good luck to it with
its honest jacket ! lives equally well in Ireland as
under the equator ; and can there be any doubt that
isBVi«r^«4vi "17 JK
V
the yam, an inestimable rO(ft,'tvould ilatkrisft just as
well by its side ?
'We dined and slept at the Government House, a
very convenient and pleasant residence a little above
the town. We ate well; more particularly, the
turtle was excellent and dressed with extraordinary
care, but I never drank worse in the West Indies ;
the wine was absolutely a disgrace to the colony.
Surely a small stock of common London particular,
if nothing else, might be kept for public occasions
without impoverishing the treasury; they would
have done better if they had given us some plain
punch with guava jelly in it, for their old rum is
commendable in a high degree. And then, when I
went to bed thirsty and out of humour, I found my
room, which had not been used for some time, full
of mosquitos, and a very imperfect kind of curtain
to protect me. Beelzebub,* who in virtue of his
principality commands the whole of this infernal fly-
ing brigade, grinned, no doubt, at my vexation ; he
loves to see a man go to bed angry, for then the
blood gets feverish, and the stings of his troops are
doubly poisonous upon the heated face, and the filthy
blotches more permanent. 1 rolled and tossed
about like Achilles,
AXXot' tol tfXsupas xuraxsipsvog, aXKors <$' avrs
T?rrio£, aXkors 8s tfpyjv?j£*
* Prince of Flies.
180 NEVIS.
but the foul fiend had me and got drunken with my
gore. I might well have groaned out what one of
the middies in the Edan said afterwards,
" Jam satis terrae Nevis atque dirge !
Let us aboard !" t
There are five parish churches and two large
private chapels in this little island. With one ex-
ception the former were in excellent condition, and
all of them are situated in the most picturesque
spots that can be conceived. The view from the
Lowland church upon the blue Narrows, the islet
in the middle, and the serpentine shores of St. Kitt's
beyond, is very pretty, but Figtree church is the
most perfect thing I ever saw. It is situated half
way up the mountain, and looks down upon a wide
expanse of sea, the town, the ships, the whole length
of St. Kitt's and the top of St. Eustatius beyond all.
The burying ground is properly inclosed ; there is
a very good organ which a nice looking girl played
upon for our sakes, and the whole interior was as
neat as it could be. This was Lady Nelson's pa-
rish, and there is a monument to her father or some
relation erected by her in it. There is also an old
marble with the name of Stapleton Cotton engraved.
The church at Gingerland is neat, and from a part
of the road near it I saw Montserrrat, and Antigua
also lying on the horizon. The two chapels were
built on their respective estates by Mr. Cottle and
itEVIS. 181
Mr. Huggins, junior, and are spacious and well
adapted to their purpose. However, with all these
conveniences for public worship, there are only two
clergymen at present on the island, and so the pa-
rishes are merely served in turn. Besides this, the
salary which the legislature gives to each parish
minister is wholly inadequate to a decent mainte-
nance, and what makes bad worse is, that the
planters pay it in sugar. Now this practice not
only makes the clergy to a certain extent traders,
but they, poor souls, are fain to take their misera-
ble stipend in worse sugar than the king himself,
which all the world knows is in the other islands
the very vilest that can be found. The Bishop
remonstrated so strongly against this custom that I
hope it will be given up, and a sum of money certain
be substituted in its place. The pretence of not '
having cash enough in the island is hardly valid in
this age of political economy, as if in common cases
cash were not one of the easiest commodities in the
world to be had, when you possess any thing where-
with to purchase it. This the real money the Ne-
visians have ; some of them are rich.
I cannot help observing that the planters of Nevis
and Montserrat ought to be more attentive to the
clothing of their slaves than for the most part they
appear to be. Independently of its being an almost
necessary preliminary to any improvement in the
manners of a negro, it is really cold on many estates
182 Nevis.
in these islands, and creatures of heat as these poor
people are, they become exquisitely susceptible of
a change of temperature which an Englishman or a
white Creole scarcely perceives. In fact, I was as-
sured by a medical man in Montserrat that the ne-
gros on the hill estates did often suffer much from
cold, and my own observation justified the remark.
A planter, in my opinion, if he really wishes to do
good, ought to insist upon all his slaves being cloth-
ed who are above the age of five years, the women,
as women in every country under the sun ought to
be clothed, fully and properly, the men in trowsers
and a checked shirt with a pair of braces. Domes-
tics, even for one's own vanity sake, should be
made to wear shoes and stockings, or shoes at all
events, and though I would not enforce, I would
encourage the same practice in the case of the field
labourers. The planters themselves say, and for
the most part they say truly, that the negros have
the means or may have the means of procuring
these articles for themselves ; if they have, they
should be made to purchase them ; if they have not,
it is the undoubted duty of the planters, as they are
masters, Christians, and gentlemen, to give them.
I suspect the man who talks to me about preaching
and teaching and baptizing, when he, at least for
his own part, should be measuring and sewing and
building; for until you have taught a man or a wo-
man to respect themselves, it is vain for you to at-
NEtis. 183
tempt to teach them to respect any thing else : and
observe that the question isnot with savages of the
forest, who 6nJy know themselves, and to whom ig-
norance of shame is as the clothing of innocence be-
fore the Fall ; — no ! these slaves know that they are
n^ked; they live in immediate contact with their
masters whose manners they remark, and they daily
see the more favoured of their own color decked out
with finical extravagance. Many do indeed become
shameless by the dire force of habit, but not all ; for
not seldom have I watched a poor girl in the fields
who has turned away from the gaze of man, and
shrouded her bosom with crossed arms and declin-
ing head.
1 turned out of the road in going to Ginger-land
to see a banyan tree. It was like the pictures of it
which I have seen in East Indian books ; the lowest
and heaviest limbs shoot out in an exactly horizon-
tal line to a great length, and are really supported
by a row of pillars decreasing in size towards the ex-
tremity of the branch ; all the upper part of the tree
is free from these pendent suckers, and is like any
other.
The jail is just such another hole as the one in
Montserrat, but it was quite good enough for two of
its inmates at least, while I was in Nevis. These
two wretches were both, I think, free coloured men,
and as atrocious criminals as ever deserved to dance
upon nothing. Many slaves had at different times
184 NEVIS-
been missing from different estates ; search had al-
ways been made upon the several occasions but with-
out success, and it was supposed that they had escap-
ed to a French colony. The fact was this. These
two men used to persuade a slave, whom they sup-
posed to possess some stock in money or otherwise,
to run away with them from his master, assuring
him that they would take him off the island to a
ship, where he might assert his freedom. When
they had gotten their victim some way from land in
a boat, they used to throw him overboard. It is
frightful to think how many poor creatures they
hurled in an instant from life in this manner ; at
length one man, whom they had disposed of in this
way, was by some act of Providence saved from
drowning, and by his means in the end the murder-
ers were apprehended. It seems, however, that
there is no law to punish them for the felonies com-
mitted on the sea, and the evidence was imperfect ;
and I understood that after being kept ad libitum
Nevisiensium in the custody of our Lord the King
in his aforesaid jail, these villains must be let loose
again. It is said by speculatists, that perpetual im-
prisonment is a severer punishment than loss of life :
if so, it may be a reasonable question, whether one
year's putrefying in the prison of Charlestown be
not equivalent to captivity for life in any of the
Bridewells of the great Grand Duke.
The mean temperature of Nevis and Montserrat
r
WffM. 18,
is certainly lower than nvany other of the Antilles,
If a man would bring his cfifpurces with him, espe-
cially a wife, he might live in a delightful retire-
ment in many of the sweet hill recesses of either of
these islands. I should prefer Madeira indeed for
a residence on account of its vicinity to England,
and also because I have partly engaged to marry a
lady there when we are both come to years of dis-
cretion 5 but I should often run down the trades,
and spend the winter within the tropics. Not, how-
ever, that I would prejudice the twice venerable
Temples twain by any outlandish comparisons ; no!
Fortunati nimium, sua si bona norint
Causidici !
and yet the law is a bore to a man of poetical imagi-
nation, which is odd enough, considering how it
dealeth in the most novel and surprizing fictions in
the world. Mathematics are a bore of course, be-
cause Fancy starves at the surfeit of Reason ; but
why she should starve in law, where Heaven truly
knows that Reason, poor soul, is often fain to look
big upon a mighty scurvy dinner, is past my com-
prehension. But, no doubt, I have much to learn,
and so we will say no more about the matter. For
it is wisely remarked by the profound Lazarillo,
" that to understand to perfection the meanest art
or science requires the greatest capacity and skill.
If you bid a shoemaker, who has been thirty years
Hi 1 7
186 jnevis,
in the trade, make a pair of shoes with broad toes.
high in the instep and tight about the heels, he must
pare your feet before he fits you 5 or ask a philoso-
pher why flies' dung is black upon a white place and
white upon a black one, he will blush you like a
maiden on her wedding night, and answer nothing
to the purpose!"
And I defy the Royal Society to give a decent ex-
planation of that mystery at the present day.
f%
ST. CHRISTOPHER'S.
We set sail from Nevis at three p. m. of the 28th,
and ran down to our anchoring place before Basse-
terre at eleven knots under a heavy squall. We
did not land till the next morning, and I spent the
hour before sunset in looking from the ship upon the
beautiful island before us. The vale of Basseterre
in softness, richness and perfection of cultivation
surpasses any thing I have ever seen in my life.
Green velvet is an adequate image of the exquisite
verdancy of the cane fields which lie along this
lovely valley and cover the smooth acclivities of
Monkey Hill. This hill is the southern termina-
tion of a range of great mountains which increase
in height towards the north, and thicken together in
enormous masses in the centre of the island. The
apex of this rude pyramid is the awful crag of Mount
Misery, which shoots slantingly forwards over the
mouth of a volcanic chasm like a huge peninsula in
the air. It is bare and black and generally visible,
whilst the under parts of the mountain are envelop-
ed in clouds. The height is more than 3,700 feet,
and is the most tremendous precipice I ever beheld.
But the rfiggedness of this central cluster only ren-
188 st. Christopher's.
ders the contrast of the cultivated lands below more
striking, and the entire prospect is so charming, that
I could not help agreeing with the captain's clerk
who said he wondered that Colon, who was so de-
lighted with this island as to give to it his own name,
should not have made a full stop upon its shores. I
do not uphold the pun, but upon the whole it was
well enough for a hot climate and a captain's clerk.
Basseterre is a large town, with many good houses
in it, and one spacious square, which, with some
labor and taste expended upon it, might be made a
very fine thing. Trees should be planted regularly
on every side, an esplanade railed off, and a hand-
some stone fountain built in the centre. It would
be worthy of Colonel Maxwell to look to this, and
to exert his influence in effecting an improvement
not less important for its utility than its beauty. It
is quite extraordinary that the West Indians do not
pay more attention to their comforts. The women,
and the men too for the most part, never stir out
while the sun shines, and thus become much more
enervated than the heat of the climate would neces-
sarily make them. Why is there not a sun-proof
avenue in every town, where people might breathe
fresh air and walk in the shade ? Such a place of
common resort would infinitely enliven the dullness
of their society, invigorate their spirits, and adorn
their towns. Vegetation is so very rapid within the
tropics that a noble arcade of trees maybe raised in
st. Christopher's. 189
N
a tew years ; an alley of the graceful bamboo might
be created in one year, which might serve for a tem-
porary awning till the larger trees were grown. The
French manage all these things much better ; they
come to live in their islands, and exert all their in-
genuity and knackery in making them comfortable
homes. In Basseterre in Guadaloupe there is such
a walk, and they have a small one in St. Pierre. In
Port of Spain they have their Terreiro, which is the
original or copy of the one in Funchal. I think I
have heard that the Madeirans are indebted for that
agreeable promenade to the taste and generosity of
Sir Ralph Woodford.
The town church is very irregularly built, and
cannot contain one third of the inhabitants. True
it is that the Methodists have kindly stepped in and
offered their assistance, and, in order to demon-
strate their affection to the church, have erected
their conventicle so close to it, that the voice of the
clergyman is often drowned in the hearty chorus
which proceeds from the open doors and windows
of the great house over the way. This is something-
inconvenient, and I would humbly suggest that' it
might be avoided, or turned to a good account by a
previous agreement between the two parties to sing
in concert ; and it might Be stipulated, that in con-
sideration of the acknowledged precedence of the
establishment, and also of the hot weather, the Me-
thodists should only sing six several times to be re-
17*
190 st. Christopher's.
turned on the other side by a like number of verses
discharged at the same time in the same order. The
effect of this harmonious compact would be very
great, and might possibly be the means of softening
the asperities and levelling the angles of sectarian,
melody. However it is not meant hereby to inter-
fere with the notturnos, a species of music which
the good people might be left to execute in their own
peculiar way.
The present rector of Basseterre, Mr. Davis, a
native of the island, is one of the most powerful
preachers in the West Indies. If the fervent bold-
ness of this excellent minister were more common
amongst the colonial clergy, a greater reformation
of the public mind would be effected than it will be
easy to bring about by other means. He is but
newly instituted to this living, and the Bishop has
appointed him one of his chaplains. I anticipate
with reason the most beneficial consequences from
his zealous ministry, his enlightened superintend-
ance, and his very general influence.
The religious establishment of St. Kitt's is, with
perhaps the exception of Nevis, relatively the
largest of any in the Antilles. Yet there are only
nine churches for the accommodation of about 30,-
000 persons. Some of these are really very large,
and almost every one in good condition and fur-
nished with great neatness. They are for the most
part situated near the sea, and command the most
ST. CHRISTOPHER^. 191
exquisite prospectsf on all sides. They are lovely
to look at and lovely to look from. On the north
the majestic pyramid of St. Eustatius is an object
of ever changing and ever glorious appearance, and
if the rector of St. Mary Cayonne in the south east
is not a happy and a virtuous man, then mountains
and valleys, trees and running streams, the blue
ocean, and retirement cannot make him so.
I drove and rode round this island with the excep-
tion of the southern extremity, which is almost
uninhabited, being full of large salt ponds from
which a great quantity of that useful article is an-
nually procured. The roads are remarkably good,
and present the only instance of milestones in my
experience of the West Indies. There are one or
two pretty villages on the coast, the inhabitants of
which seemed to be nearly all coloured people.
Some of the women were very handsome and well
dressed. The fort on Brimstone hill is a very im-
posing object; it is situated on a huge rock preci-
pitous on all sides but one, backed by the moun-
tains and fronted by the coast level and the western
sea. We breakfasted near the hill with a worthy
German commissary and his good sister Miss Fer-
venstein, or some such name, for I am ill at Ger-
man ; she was born in Trieste, and could spik Ing-
lis like any nightingale. Moreover she gave us an
admirable meal; in particular, there was one lucu-
lent dish of which I could not learn the name. J.
192 st. Christopher's.
ate largely of it and was highly satisfied with it ; as
far as I could guess its composition, I should say it
was guinea fowls cut into junks, done into Mainte-
non cutlets and finally enveloped in pastry. Colo-
nel Maxwell said our good hostess was famous for
her dish. Certainly by travelling in foreign coun-
tries a man acquires an enlarged apprehension of
the gifts of nature and of the ingenuity of man.
Represent to a Londoner that the fore-arm of a
young monkey is tender and savory, urge the rich-
ness of guana, or illustrate eel by snake, and it is
ten to one that you spoil his dinner for that day ;
yet verily these things are in rerum edibilium natu-
ra, and with their wholesome cleanliness might well
put to shame the cannibal consumers of tripe and
sheep's trotters. The English prejudice for beef-
steaks may undoubtedly be defended upon certain
grounds of political economy ; but why, dear
brother of mine, should you therefore think scorn
of the froggeries of France, the crabberies of An-
tigua, or the monkeyries of Trinidad ? Within cer-
tain bounds (from which however I exclude the
crapauderies of Dominica,* for I consider it deci-
dedly unchristian to eat of them) my maxim is,
gustus neque disputandi neque contemnendi sunt.
* I have some doubts also of the admissibility of the
Groogroo worms, which is a pastry of boiled maggots
picked from the top, I believe, of a short prickly species
of palm of that name in Trinidad. — Cur. adv. mdt.
st, Christopher's, 195
I was particularly struck with a part of the road
near Sandy Point where there was a complete
grove of the beautiful and singular seaside grape*
for the space of half a mile on both sides of the
road. Clusters of the fruit, which is something be-
tween a gooseberry and a golden pippin, were hang-
ing from every branch amongst the large round
leaves ; they were then yellow, but ripen into a
darker colour. In Antigua some good Moravian
women made us an enormous tart of these grapes ;
it was the best piece of Moravian work I have ever
seen. It equalled fresh gooseberries, which secun-
dum subjectam materiam is as much as can be said
for any mortal fruit pie. I must mention also a
magnificent avenue of cabbage treesf in double
rows which led to some lady's house on the wind-
ward side of the island ; I forget her name, but we
all agreed that it was the finest display of these
tufted princes of the vegetable kingdom, these liv-
ing Corinthian columns, that could be found any
where in the Antilles. Ligon declares that in Bar-
bados in his time about 1645, there were many of
these trees which measured upwards of 300 feet in
height ; which declaration I will be so bold as to
say was a gigantic lie of the worthy old planter's
own in spite of all his arithmetic. After many in-
* I believe the coccoloba uvifera.
f" Areca oleracea.
194 a», Christopher's.
quiries in various islands, I could find no one who
would answer for more than 120 or, at the utmost,
1 30 feet, and of that height T have frequently seen
them. And this is taking the matter favourably
for Ligon. Barbados was then for the most part
covered with wood, and the trees, of which he
speaks, were growing in the midst of it ; now I
have always remarked that the palm in a forest is
much shorter and slenderer than when it springs up
by itself or in regular and open rows. Not but
that Ligon had a perfect right to tell the lie, seeing
it was only within a few years that the gentry of
Guiana had discontinued that barbarous fashion of
wearing their heads under their arms and their eye
in the middle of their breasts. For all which a
better man than Ligon had pledged his reputation.
But as we went round the island, though my eyes
often wandered over the sea and through the trees,
yet did they always return at short intervals, and
fix themselves upon the sullen skyward fragment
of the Mountain of Misery. I passed entirely
round its base and saw it from various points of
view ; it changed under the shifting clouds from
black to pale, and seemed to be impatient of fix-
ture, and to be straining forward to dash itself to
atoms in the chasm below. What a place for
Timon to have chosen in his misanthropy ! Truly
the philosophers would have had good need of cry-
ing out to him, M^ jS&XXs, w T/f*wv* atfi^sv yap. He
.
ST. CHRISTOPHER^. 195
might have settled, all the schools in Athens or
Basseterre either by a kick of his foot.
I believe I have reason to say that there is no
colony, with perhaps the exception of Grenada,
where the free-coloured people are treated with
so much justice as in St. Kitt's. There are in-
stances here of respectable white and coloured
persons intermarrying, which is a conquest over
the last and most natural of all prejudices. The
only newspaper in the island is conducted by a
coloured man, and what is more, as well conducted
as any other in the West Indies. Their oaths
as witnesses they have long possessed. I believe,
but I am not certain, that they vote indiscrimi-
nately with the whites in the election of members
for the General Assembly. I received the Sacra-
ment myself after a black woman, and the odious
custom of burying them and the slaves in a de-
tached piece of ground is not common, and where
it did exist a little while ago I believe it has been
since abolished at the earnest instances of the
worthy Bishop.
The Moravians are numerous and have many
establishments in the island. They labour, in still-
ness, as they say of themselves, and are, I really
believe, a good and innoxious class of people ; at
the same time the United Brethren near St. Mary
Cayonne ought to look more sharply after the
manners of their females. There were ten or a
196 §rl Christopher's.
;.
dozen mulatto women entirely undressed and wash-
ing their clothes in a brook of water not twenty
yards from the high road in this parish. Whether
from innocence or impudence I cannot say, but
certainly they paid no more attention to our party
than if we had been so many posts. However
this is a solitary instance in my experience of the
West Indies.
The same practice of paying the clergymen in
sugar has hitherto prevailed here as in Nevis, but
I hope it is now or will shortly be abandoned for a
more decent and effectual stipend. The sincere
and active minister of the Gospel in the West In-
dies is a most meritorious man ; he is the living
source of intelligence and good order to every
class of people in his neighbourhood, and to him,
animated and strengthened, as he now is, by the
exhortations, example and protection of the Bishop
of the diocese, do I principally look for a substan-
tial advancement in the morals, knowledge, and
relative behaviour of white and coloured, of bond
and free. The planter is as much interested in
the abilities and virtues of the minister of his
parish as his own slaves can possibly be ; and it
does really become him now to give up that petty
tyranny, which has been hitherto exercised over
the colonial clergymen, and to rescue them from
that dependence on vestries, churchwardens and
others, which is destructive of the utility of one
ST. CHRISTOPH&fc's. 197
■
party and degrading to the characters of botlr.
The money that is spent in the liberal mainte-
nance of a competent number of well-educated
ministers on each island is money laid out to great
advantage ; the security is. good, and the returns
will be a hundredfold.
The first night of being in St. Kitt's I lodged
at a place called the Camp, and slept for half an
hour in a bed without a curtain. In this space
of time I was bitten almost into a fever by mosqui-
tos of prodigious size and famished ferocity. The
air was impregnated with these infernal animals,
and a white servant, who slept on the stairs outside
my room, awoke in the morning with both his eyes
almost sewed up. Colonel Maxwell was merciful
enough to give me a bed in his house for the rest of
my stay, but I did not recover from the effects of
this unparalleled attack of Beelzebub for a week.
There i3 a spot on the side of a hill, the name of
which I forget, in returning from St. Mary Cayonne,
from which the vale of Basseterre may be viewed
with the greatest advantage. I think there is no
place on earth which can surpass the richness and
cultivated beauty of this lovely scene. Nothing
can be better disposed for completing the effect than
the plantations are ; the tall and moving windmills,
the houses of the proprietors, the works and palm-
thatched cottages of the negros embosomed in plan-
tains, present the appearance, as indeed they ar t e
13
198 st v Christopher's.
the substance, of so many country villages in Eng-
land. On one side is Basseterre with the ships, on
the other the ocean to windward, the mountains be-
hind, in front the broken and peninsular termina-
tion of the island to the south, the salt lakes gleam-
ing between the openings of the rocks, and Nevis
towering majestically over all.
I agree with Don Christoval; this island does
deserve to bear the name of as great a man as ever
the old world had reason to be proud of. If he con-
sidered it so beautiful ere the hand of human indus-
try had levelled the thickets and cast seed into the
soil, what would the Admiral say of his namesake
now, when with all its natural charms undiminish-
ed, it is breathing, as I verily believe, with a con-
tented and even happy population, and smiling
throughout its valleys with the green harvests of the
torrid zone? That there are divers particulars
which an European philanthropist would wish to
see reformed or removed altogether, is certainly
true ; but it is also true that a majority of the plant-
ers are gentlemen of understanding and humanity,
and prove by their acts, private and public, and their
conversation, that they are sincerely willing to pro-
mote the true welfare of every class in their com-
munity by all the means within their power. The
governor, I know, and the legislature, I think, are
both actuated by principles of real liberality towards
the colored part of the population ; an act has been
.ST, CHRISTOPHERS. 199
promptly and unanimously passed to invest thp*
Bishop with full powers, and I am convinced that
there is no amendment, no change, no practical
measure of any sort which could be suggested by
him, which would not be carried into immediate
effect to the utmost of their political or private
power.
I exceedingly regret that I had not time to visit a
very remarkable level in the midst of the mountains,
which appears to be similar in its character to the
plains between the Cordilleras of upper Peru. Most
of the common vegetables of Europe will grow
there, and the face of the country, 1 am told, is totally
different from what it is in the lowland valleys.
Under this government are comprised Nevis,
Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. The first
is naturally attached to St. Christopher's, but the
two latter are at a very inconvenient distance from
it and from each other. After Trinidad, I should
prefer this government to any other in the Antilles ;
but a man ought to have a good independent fortune
to live comfortably in these places. I would no
more submit to be kept on board wages by any of
their Assemblies than I would to stand court can-
didate for Westminster. In Tobago they have the
unexampled effrontery to deduct so much per diem
from their governor's salary for his occasional ab-
sence from the island on military'duty : for which
no doubt, among other causes, they are pre-emine it-
200 st. Christopher's.
ly blessed with yellow fevers and dry belly-aches.
Tobago is a fine island ; but really the planters
ought to behave with more liberality ; and let them
remember this . . . the worse they pay, the worse
they will have . . . and there is an end of the matter.
*
ANGUILLA.
On Wednesday afternoon we re-embarked and
steered for Anguilla. It was the glorious first of
June, and we all drank to the memory of Lord
Howe, as in naval duty bound. We passed between
St. Eustatius and Saba, both of them Dutch islands.
They rise out of the sea in majestic cones, but, like
Nevis, fall away on their north sides into a broken
level. We were within a mile of the town in St.
Eustatius, which seemed large and divided into an
upper and lower range of houses ;. . .few ships were
within the bay which is a commodious one, and the
colony is said never to have recovered from the
effects of the capture by Lord Rodney in 1781. I
am afraid that the scandalous manner in which this
island was lost a short time afterwards to a handfull
of French soldiers was only a just punishment for
the unworthy severities before exercised by the
captors. Plunder generally burns the fingers of
those who are concerned in it. We sailed the
whole length of St. Bartholomew's or St. Bart's, as
it is commonly called, and just looked into the har-
bour of Gustavia, which is difficult of access, but
18*
202 ANGUILLA.
otherwise a very fine one. This belongs to the
Swedes and is, I believe, the only colony they pos-
sess. It is a long uneven island without that cen-
tral rising which is almost universal in the other
islands, and which seems to indicate volcanic action.
Barbados indeed is an exception. After St. Bar-
tholomew's, we coasted along St. Martin's which is
divided between the Dutch and the French, and on
the afternoon of the 2d of June we came abreast of
the low and level shores of Anguilla.
Shorten sail, sound starboard and larboard, and
be very careful in going into the road of this island.
The Dutch chart is imperfect. We anchored a
little way from a sand bank not five feet under
water, where the chart gave five fathoms. You
might run upon Sandy island itself by night without
seeing it three minutes before. I must say it seems
to me that it would be more creditable to the great-
est maritime power on earth to ascertain something
certain of the navigation of its own Caribbean sea
by a scientific survey than to reprint the old Spanish
maps, and when they fail, to send its officers to pick
up informatian, as they may, from an unintelligible
chart of Samuel Fahlberg. The French manage
these things better, much better.*
* In one of the charts of the Gulf of Paria you see
"breakers" here, " breakers" there, " breakers" every-
where, the water being always as smooth as a mill pond.
ANGU1LLA. '203
Anguilla presents a very singular appearance for
a West Indian island. A little wall of cliff of some
forty feet in height generally rises from the beach,
and when you have mounted this, the whole country
lies before you gently sloping inwards in a concave
form, and sliding away, as it were, to the south where
the land is only just above the level of the sea.
The Flat island and St. Martin's terminate the view
in this direction. Seven tenths of the country are
entirely uncultivated ; in some parts a few coppi-
ces, but more commonly a pretty species of myrtle
called by the negros maiden berry, seem to cover
the whole soil; the roads are level grassy tracks
over which it is most delightful to ride, and the
houses and huts of the inhabitants are scattered
about in so picturesque a manner that I was put iii
mind of many similar scenes in Kent and Devon-
shire. Indeed there were scarcely any of the usual
features of West Indian scenery visible ; neither of
those prominent ones, the lively windmill or the
columnar palm, was to be seen, and there was a
rusticity, a pastoral character on the face of the
land, its roads and its vegetation, which is the
exact antipode of large plantations of sugar. I
Their history is this. In the Spanish chart the sound-
ings are marked by bragas, fathoms ; hence our afore-
said " breakers," for which at least the translator's head
ought to have been broken.
- 1
204 ANGUILLA.
believe I did see one dwarf cocoanut tree, but it
looked miserable and unhappy, and was evidently
out of its element.
I had great fun with a parcel of laughing, lazy,
good for nothing women who were assembled in
the evening on a grassy space where four tracks met,
for the purposes of talking at all events as much as
possible, and then of drawing water at the public
well. This well had no wheel attached to it for
facilitating the drawing up of the water; the wo-
men let down a bucket then began to laugh, then
dragged away at their bucket by main force, then
showed their teeth again, then dragged away again,
and after five or six alternations of laughing and quar-
relling, dragging and screaming, they secured about
one bucket full of water; the rest of course being
spilt by the vessel striking against the sides of the
well. Their ropes too were quickly frayed by the
friction against the edge, and, I should think, could
never last more than a fortnight in constant use.
We offered to send a carpenter and some men from
the ship to construct a windlass for them, if any
timber could be found, for all which about three
hundred teeth grinned upon us very graciously.
However our benevolent intention had no effect,
for although, upon application to the lieutenant
governor, his Honor was pleased to promise suffi-
cient wood for the purpose, yet, upon the most dili-
gent search being made throughout the vicinage,
ANGUILLA. 205
the returning officer certified that there was no such
timber to be found ; and so the Anguillan damsels
must be fain to draw their water as aforetime, un-
less and until His Majesty, in conformity with his
other wholesome provisions for the reformation of
the interior economy of this unconquered, and,
as the Honorable Benjamin Gumbs added, uncon-
querable colony, shall order the collector of his cus-
toms at Old Road to import one tree, pitch pine or
other as shall seem expedient, to be devoted to the
single object of constituting a wheel or windlass for
the said well, and for no other use or purpose what-
soever. It may be as well to mention too that the
colonial flag has been long since worn out ; the
staff remains before the government house, but
Union, Standard or St. George is there none. To
be sure, as the Honourable Benjamin Gumbs re-
marked, it matters little ; " for no enemy, sir, will
ever penetrate into this country to see whether we
have a flag or not :" which is probably true.
The lieutenant governor received us with marked
distinction on the steps of his house. He is an old
man venerable for his white hairs, sore eyes and
lack of teeth; affluent in the undoubted possession
of two coats and one dimity waistcoat with regiment-
al buttons attached to them. His hospitality was
as sincere as his entertainment was spare ; wine,
poor soul ! he had none, and rum we eould not
drink, but there was water, and as much as we
206 ANGUILLA.
liked of it from the aforesaid well. But the frost
of age melted away when the glorious deeds of An-
guilla were mentioned ; how the old warrior reared
himself up on his chair ! how he girded his loins
and took up his parable ! " I told the men, I'll tell
ye what, I know nothing about marching and coun-
termarching, but my advice to you is to wait till the
enemy comes close, and then fire and load and fire
again like the devil." Whereat we all looked
grave as was proper; but his Honor was sublime
beyond all consideration of infernal similes. Victor
Hugues himself would have trembled to beard such
a soldier in his den, if he had known of his exist-
ence.
That murderous ruffian never did any thing more
wantonly atrocious than ordering the attack of An-
guilla in 1796. It could serve no warlike or colo-
nial purpose, especially as, it is said, his instructions
to the officers were to exterminate the inhabitants.
The French burnt the little town, pulled down the
church, stabbed men in their houses, and stripped
women of their clothes. In such a case it is a real
satisfaction to know that punishment followed hard
upon the crime. Every man in the expedition was
afterwards killed or taken prisoner by the Lapwing,
and the two French ships were destroyed.
The council presented an address to the bishop,
which was very creditable to the good taste and
feeling of the principal people of this unjustly for-
ANGUILLA. 207
gotten colony. Indeed they seem a good sort of
folks, though they have been living for a long time
in a curious state of suspended civilization. They
acknowledge the English laws, but the climate is
•said to induce fits of drowsiness on them, during
which Justice sleepeth and Execution tarrieth.
These periods of dormancy are occasional and arise
from no very definite cause. In the book of the
deputy provost marshal, after recording that a writ
received at the office in 1809 was executed in 1818,
it is thus written —
" The reason the above execution was not pre-
viously levied is, that there was no place of confine-
ment, and that the laws of this island were lying
dormant from the period of granting the writ until
instructions were received by the lieutenant govern-
or from the captain general to proceed in execution
of the laws and customs of the island, which occur-
rence took place in 1818, when the marshal was or-
dered to do his duty, and made this attachment
accordingly."
The laws having awaked, they were troubled with
such an immense number of writs again, that the
poor creatures had no time to eat or to drink ;
whereupon after a few months wakefulness, they
became dormant again, and so have continued for
the last six years. In 1822 indeed the board of
council formally declared, " that it was useless to
erect themselves into a court of judicature for want
of a jail."
208 ANGUILLA.
nullo contentam carcere Romam !
One small methodist chapel is the only place of
religious worship in Anguilla. The minister is a
colored man with a stipend of £200 per annum
from the Society in England, and is consequently
the richest man in the island. He has 250 admitted
members, and his congregation rarely exceeds 400
souls. There remains therefore about 2,600 human
beings without, or only with the name of Christians.
This gentleman has been eleven years in his situa-
tion, and in all that time has never dreamed of
establishing a school for the young. The serenity
of the neighbourhood was disturbed in the evening
when I was there, by the worse than Popish mum-
mery of class meetings ; the young women and
children were screaming out by rote some hymns
and songs with an asperity and discordance of tone
which seemed to make nature angry, and exhibiting
a scene of such mechanical superstition and sense-
less perversion of Christian worship as might well
have caused a wiser man than me to weep for the
possible absurdities of mankind.
But brighter prospects are opening in Anguilla.
Its state has been thoroughly examined by commis-
sion from the governor of St. Kitt's, and a system of
reformation in consequence undertaken. The An-
guillians now send a representative to the assembly
of St. Kitt's and the island is to be bound by all
laws enacted in his presence. These laws are not
ANGUILLA
209
to be allowed to go to sleep upon any pretence
whatever. A court is to be erected and juries im-
panelled. A church will be built partly by govern-
ment and partly by themselves, and a clergyman
and catechist will reside on the island 5 one or two
schools are to be opened forthwith under proper
masters, and the colony will be periodically visited
by the Archdeacon of Antigua, and the Bishop him-
self.
The great curiosity of Anguilla is the salt pond.
This is a shallow lake surrounded by little hills,
except where it is divided from the sea by the beach
alone. The salt forms a crust on the clay under
water, whence it is scraped off and laid up in stacks
on the shore, which being thatched with branches
of the tier palm present at first sight the appearance
of an Indian village. The salt which I saw dug
out for use was very white, strong, and beautifully
crystallized. This pond is common property,
and every one may take as much of it as he can
get. The natives talk of their crop of salt, as plant-
ers do of their canes, or as we should do of our corn.
In favourable years 300,000 bushels of this article
have been exported. If the poor folks had a free
port, they might get on tolerably well. Unrestrict-
ed commerce, which is munificence and stimulus
to London and Liverpool, would be charity to An-
guilla.
19
210
ANGUILLA.
By the by they make very good hats here from
the leaves of the tier palm, the smallest and most
delicate species of that great family of trees which
I have seen.
There are 365 whites, 327 free-coloured, and
2,388 slaves in Anguilla.
The colony is very poor ; an inconsiderable por-
tion of it is cultivated, and that with so little capital
that much improvement in the present state of
things seems improbable. I fear the slaves suffer a
good deal from want of certain and adequate provi-
sion, and the mode of meeting the scarcity by giv-
ing them one, two or three days liberty to seek it
any where is decidedly an aggravation of the evil.
This time, which is almost always devoted by them
to idleness or stealing, should be employed even
compulsorily, if necessary, in the planting of pro-
vision grounds of which any quantity may be taken
in, and of any quality. As it is, the yams of An-
guilla are well known for their excellence. That a
population of three thousand persons in a level and
fertile island of greater extent than Nevis within
the tropics should suffer from a deficiency of the
means of subsistence, is a case of such very gross
mismanagement as seems to deserve the punishment
which it certainly induces. The white inhabitants
are much in debt to their neighbours of St. Mar-
tin's and St. Bartholomew's ; and though their dis-
tress has not destroyed their good feelings and
ANGUILLA. 211
wishes for improvement, yet it has necessarily ren-
dered them more neglectful of the welfare of their
dependents than their brethren under happier cir-
cumstances are usually found to be.
I am told indeed that Mr. Buxton, a good man
but, unfortunately for his own true fame and the in-
terests of all parties concerned, very imperfectly
informed of the actual state of things in the West
Indies, has said in substance, that he wished the af-
fairs of the planters were even more embarrassed
than they are, because, if sugar or other staple were
not worth the growing, the slaves would necessarily
have less work, and so live a trifle more comfortably.
Now this seems to me a simple speech ; a very
small quantity of political or even domestic Econo-
my might have taught a man of so much sense bet-
ter. Without crossing the Atlantic Ocean, in Free-
mason's Hall itself, (and it is not easy to remove
oneself farther from light of every description,) a
person might have reasoned, that if the planters,
being, as they are written down in the Reports of
the African Institution, a cruel and selfish race of
men, could no longer feed themselves, their wives
and their children in the manner they were wont,
they would be little likely to take much trouble
about feeding their despised slaves at all. If the
slaves were rendered useless, they would not and
could not be maintained at the expense of their
masters; and if they were not so maintained, the
.
212
ANGUILLA.
slaves would of course maintain themselves by
open violence. Now if any one wishes this last to
be the case, I will be bold enough to say that he
wishes in reality not only the entire destruction of
the colonies as sources of commerce, but also the
demolition of every imaginable chance of ultimately
converting the slaves into good citizens and enlight-
ened men.
But if Mr. Buxton, as a great and heroic act of
devotion to the cause of humanity, would go across
this ocean stream and see what he is so often talk-
ing about, (and upon my word I believe the planters
would receive him with civility,) he would then
know, as a fact about which there could be no dis-
pute, that the condition of a slave in the West In-
dies bears in its comparative comforts or sufferings
a pretty exact relation to the independence or indi-
gence of his master. This in its appropriate de-
gree is certainly the case in England, and really I
cannot understand why any body should suppose it
to be different in the colonies. It is not my hu-
mour to fill this page with a detailed account of the
management of slaves on an estate ; it may all be
found in Macdonnell or Macqueen, and it is just as
much a matter of course as poor rates and a parish
doctor in England. If any one can deny this to be
the general and accustomed practice, let him do so.
and distinctly prove his assertion ; if he can do this,
he will effectually put the West Indians to silence 3
ANGUILLA. 213
if he cannot make it good, then, as an honest man,
he will never repeat such assertion, never argue
upon such assertion, nay, will gainsay those who
continue to do either. This is a point unconnected
with the grand question of slavery in the abstract ;
there are many evils in that state more pernicious
than short commons, but this is a topic which is
infinitely harangued upon and usually makes the
deepest impression.
That there are degrees in slavery is true; the
different education and more different tempers of
the masters will operate in various ways upon the
condition of the slaves, and between the highest
and the lowest stage there will be often a greater
space than between freedom and some states of
slavery itself. The well dressed lady's maid or
gentleman's butler and groom seem scarcely^be-
neath the same classes of people in England ; they
receive no wages indeed, and cannot leave their
service ; but it must be recollected that they enjoy
under their master's protection almost every thing
which they could buy with money, and that their
country is so small, and society so uniform in it,
that the wish to see the unknown world and to try
other services, which would render such a restric-
tion tormenting in England or France, can affect
their contentment in a very slight degree. The
other extreme of servitude comprises the slaves
belonging to the petty land proprietors, and the
19*
214 ANGUILLA.
white and coloured tradesmen,, mechanics and
keepers of hotels in the towns. The servi servo-
rum, the slaves of slaves occur so rarely as not to
be worth taking into the account, except for the
purpose of instancing a curious right of slavery,
and of reprobating its allowance. I am far from
meaning to condemn all these classes of masters
by wholesale ; it often happens, I am told, that
they are even too indulgent, and admit their slaves
to a familiarity which can do no good to either
party ; but I am bound to say that the only cases
of cruelty, which I either met with or heard of in
the West Indies, were one and all perpetrated by
persons of this description. As the owners live
worse, the slaves must of necessity live worse also .:
as their owners are less enlightened, less affected
by public opinion, nay, oftentimes as barbarous or
even more so than themselves, they the slaves must
of course profit less under the instruction, and be
more completely at the mercy of the passions of
such their masters.
These are the two extremes ; the average con-
dition is that of the labourers in the field upon
respectable estates. These constitute seven or
eight tenths of the whole slave population. In
point of ease and shade their life is much inferior
to that of the planter's domestic ; in food, care in
sickness, instruction and regular protection, they
are incomparably better off than the wretched
ANGUILLA. 215
thralls of the low inhabitants of the towns. The
positive amount of their rights and privileges is,
as I have occasionally remarked, various in various
islands ; in none is it greater, in few so great as
in Barbados. There are many things in the slave
management of that colony, which might be ad-
vantageously imitated by the planters of other
islands, but at the same time this is a matter
which depends so much upon local circumstances
that it would be presumptuous in any one to con-
demn, upon general principles alone, those who
do not avail themselves of the example.
ANTIGUA
J. he Eden was under weigh at two p. m., on
the 3d of June. We ran back the same course
to leeward of St. Martin's and St. Bartholomew's,
and beat out to windward of St. Eustatius with
the wind E. S. E. It was hard work the whole
way to English Harbour, where we arrived on
Monday evening the 6th a little before sunset.
We should not have managed the matter as it was,
if we had not carried on in spite of a succussion of
sharp squalls which made our royal masts bend
like weeping willows. The entrance is exceed-
ingly narrow, and every preparation was made to
moor the ship in the event of the wind baffling
her. An attempt to tack would infallibly run a
vessel ashore. However we glided in gently to
our birth between the two quays of the dockyard,
and fastened the ship by hawsers to rings on the
shore on either side.
This is without exception the prettiest little
harbour I evec/saw; the extreme neatness of the
docks, the busy village which has grown up in
their vicinity, the range of hills of various shapes
ANTIGUA, 217
and colors which encircles the inland sides, and the
rocky Ridge which frowns over the mouth with its
Union and cannons and ramparts, present such a
combination of tropical beauty and English style
and spirit as I never saw elsewhere in the West In-
dies. The harbour is said to be unhealthy, and
from its inclosed situation such a circumstance
seems probable ; at the same time I have not heard
of any instance in which the crews of ships have
materially suffered during their stay there. Indeed
it is a season of great merriment with them ; they
live on shore, and after their regular dock labour,
dance and sing all the evening to their own abundant
content. The officers have a large and commodi-
ous barrack to themselves, and in most cases find it
a very agreeable place of relaxation from the wretch-
ed confinement on board ship in this perspiring cli-
mate. St. John's, the capital of Antigua, lies on the
opposite side of the island, and this distance, which
is perhaps a little annoying to the more urban part
of the lieutenants and midshipmen, is an excellent
quality in the harbour with regard to the common
sailors. There is a devil in the West Indies called
New Rum, which has killed almost as many stout
tars as the French have, and he looks so like an
angel of light in Jack's eyes, that it is not in the
poor fellow's heart to refuse him any thing.
I was very pleasantly surprised with the look of
the country. Antigua is so generally spoken of as a
218 ANTIGUA.
dry and a dust place where the earth refuses to yield
water for the use of man, that I received more than
ordinary pleasure in gazing on the gentle wooded
hills and green meadow vales which decorate the
interior of the island. Antigua on a larger scale is
formed like Anguilla, that is, without any central
eminences, but for the most part ramparted around
by very magnificent cliffs, which slope inwards in
gradual declivities. From some of these rocks ?
especially near the parsonage of St. Philip's parish,
one of the finest panoramic views in the world may
be obtained. The whole island, which is of a
rough circular figure, lies in sight ; the grand forti-
fications on the Ridge and Monk's Hill silently me-
nace the subject fields ; St. John's rises distinctly
with its church on the north-western horizon, whilst
the woods which cover the sides and crest the sum-
mit of Figtree Hill just break the continuity of sea
in the south-west. The heart of the island is ver-
dant with an abundant pasturage or grassy down,
and the numerous houses of the planters, embosom-
ed in trees, have more of the appearance of coun-
try mansions in England than almost any others in
the West Indies. The shores are indented in every
direction with creeks and bays and coves, some of
them running into the centre of the plantations like
canals, some swelling into estuaries, and others
forming spacious harbours. Beyond these, an in-
finite variety of islands and islets stud the bosom of
ANTIGUA. 219
the blue sea, and stand out like so many advanced
posts of defence against the invading waves. They
are of all shapes and sizes, and are given up to the
rearing of provisions and the maintenance of a great
number of cattle. From the same hill when the
western sky is clear, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Ne-
vis and St. Kitt's may all be distinguished by the na-
ked eye.
The tortuous descent of Figtree Hill, though not
so rich and imposing as the mountains and valleys of
Trinidad, is yet a patch of scenery so exquisitely
beautiful that no painter or poet, who had once seen
it, could ever forget the sight. A prodigious num-
ber of forest trees grow on the tops and declivities
of the cliffs, and luxuriant festoons and knots and
nets of evergreen creepers connect them all toge-
ther in one great tracery of leaves and branches.
The wild pine sparkled on the large limbs of the
wayside trees ; the dagger-like ^Spanish needle, the
quilled tpimploe and the Jmaypole aloe shooting
upwards to twenty feet with its yellow flowering
crown on high formed an impenetrable mass of ve-
getation around the road, and seemed fixed on pur-
pose there to defend the matchless purple-wreaths
or lilac jessamine, which softened the dark foliage
amongst which they hung, from being plucked by
the hand of the admiring traveller. Meanwhile a
vigorous song of birds arose, and made the silent
* Bidens pilosa. | Cactus tuna. J Agave Americana,
220 ANTIGUA.
defile ring with the clear morning sound of Eu-
ropean warblers, in the midst of which and ever and
anon some unseen single creature uttered a long-
drawn quivering note, which struck upon my ear
with the richness and the melancholy of a human
voice. Many persons have remarked the extra-
ordinary tones of this bird, but I could not learn any
name for it. It is the lovelorn nightingale of a
silent tropic noon.
.Antigua depends generally for its water upon the
rain collected in tanks, and those who have been
long accustomed to the insipidity of this beverage
can with great difficulty reconcile themselves to the
rough vivacity produced by the earthy particles in
common pump water. It is however a mistake of
Bryan Edwards to say that there are no springs in
this island ; a remarkably sweet and transparent
one is to be found on the left hand side of the road
at some little distance before the descent of Figtree
Hill. If you are nice, you should take a glass
tumbler to see the precious liquor sparkle; other-
wise there is an antique negro always croning hard
by who will lend you a clean calabash. There are
great numbers of ponds in the low parts of the
estates which are filled by the rain and serve for the
cattle and domestic water fowls; in wet weather
these guts, as they are called, overflow their banks
and often interrupt all communication by carriages
on the roads. It is, curious to see how arbitrary the
ANTIGUA. 221
unfashionableness of words is ; if you commend the
wing of a duck here, it is a chance your hostess, a
pleasing and lady-like woman, will express to you
the place of the animal's birth in terms which might
make a gentleman of weak nerves leap out of his
chair. It sounds odd, but really it is high time to
get rid of these boarding school prejudices, which
would deprive an Englishman of his Saxon name for
the intestines of humanity.
The planters' houses were, I think, the best ap-
pointed of any that I saw in the West Indies. Many
of them are very old mansions, and constructed
upon a more spacious and substantial plan than is
generally deemed expedient in these days of mort-
gages. A small park or lawn is commonly enclos-
ed round the house, and the sugar works, which,
however picturesque at a distance, are a very dis-
agreeable appendage at hand, are so well concealed
by trees and bushes that in many cases their exist-
ence would not be suspected by a person within the
principal building. I saw with great pleasure also
the formation of some pretty flower gardens, for
which there are such manifold facilities and delight-
ful rewards, that it is surprising their existence
should be so rare. The coloring of floral vegeta-
tion within the tropics is certainly not so diversified
and finely graduated as in England, but it is infinite-
ly more gorgeous and majestic. The scarlet cor-
dia, the crimson hibiscus, the pink and saffron
20
> i
222 ANTIGUA.
flower-fence,* the plumeria, the white datura, and
whiter amaryllis seem to be the oil-painting of na-
ture ; the colors are all massy, deep and golden,
and the dark radiancy of the foliage is beyond all
imitation or description. In northern climates the
flower has less body and shade and regularity about
it; its lucid freshness, its fallings off and vanishings
of commingled hues, its complex designs and multi-
form figuring are lovely and domestic and no more,
A cool English garden is the water-coloring of the
earth.
Cedar Hill, the seat of Martin Byam, with its
long avenues of white cedars struck me as being a
very delectable place ; Bvam was an Eton boy, and
having fought through the Peninsula hung up his
sword non sine gloria, retired to his patrimony and
determined to live like a gentleman. I ate a par-
ticular breakfast at Betty's Hope, which is a com-
fortable old rustic mansion with pillared gateway,
fantastic trees and wild birds and beasts swarming
about it. 3Fhe house of Mr. Warner, the President
of the Council, is a very finished affair ; he is a de-
scendant of the person of the same name, who was
the chief colonizer of this and some of the neigh-
bouring islands ; the original grant by Charles I. is
framed and set up over the door of his dining room.
From the ceiling of the portico which was covered
* Pointziana pulcherrima or Barbados pride.
ANTIGUA. 223
with foilage of one sort or another, a spiral tendril
hung down, and within one of its limber coils, I re-
member a tiny humming-bird had built his cotton-
woven nest, and was fearlessly swinging to and fro
over our heads with his breast and body sunk inside,
and the tail and crested head alone peeping out on
either side. Here also I became acquainted with a
new dish of very attractive qualities in gene re bel-
lariorum ; it is called Floating Island by the natives,
because a certain dense and vinous mass of guava
jelly is made to swim in guise of an islet upon a
stagnant lake of cream and wine and sugar and cit-
ron. It is the correlative of Trifle, as Mr. Cole-
ridge would say ; but tipsy cake, although a satis-
factory thing per se, is not equal to this jelly. I
confess I do not see any just cause or impediment
why these two articles should not be joined together
in one dish. I am convinced upon mature diges-
tion of the matter, that a simultaneous absorption
of both dainties would be highly agreeable to the
well-informed appetencies of the man of taste.
Dr. Nugent the geologist gave us an excellent din-
ner at Merf^wing Hall, properly so named from a
certain daylight modification of mosquito which re-
joiceth therein. The tfuvwo/ wore boots and the la-
dies cqyered their ancles and feet with shawls ; 1
being ignarus mali was horribly punished ; never-
theless we enacted a quadrille in the evening for the
amusement of the negros of the establishment.
224
ANTIGUA
Every Creole female loves dancing as she loves
herself. From the quadrille of the lady down to
the John-John of the negro, to dance is to be hap-
py. The intense delight they take in it is the na-
tural consequence of that suppression of animal vi-
vacity which the climate and habits of the West
Indies never fail to produce. The day is passed
within doors in languor and silence ; there are no
public amusements or public occupations to engage
their attention, and their domestic cares are few.
A ball is therefore to them more than a ball ; it is
an awakener from insensibility, a summoner to so-
ciety, a liberator of locked up affections, an inspi-
rer of motion and thought. Accordingly there is
more artlessness, more passion than is usual with us
in England ; the soft dark eyes of a Creole girl
seem to speak such devotion and earnestness of
spirit that you cannot choose but make your part-
ner your sweetheart of an hour; there is an attach-
ment between you which is delightful, and you can-
not resign it without regret. She is pale, it is true,
but there is a beauty, as South said, in this very
paleness, and her full yet delicate shape is at once
the shrine and censor of Love, whence breathe
the melting thought,
The kiss ambrosial, and the yielding smile.
Their dancing is an andante movement, but they
never tire. Upborne with indefatigable toes, they
will hold you seven or eight hours right on end, and
ANTIGUA. 225
think the minutes all too short. At four in the
morning my last partner went ; she had started at
half-past seven ; she could no longer resist the ca-
vernous yawns of her papa and mama, but it was
reluctantly that she went ;
necdum satiata recessit.
I like a ball in the West Indies better than in
England. True it is that you perspire, but then you
have not to undergo the triumph of superior fri-
gidity in your partner; she perspires in precise
analogy with yourself, lifts and relifts the cambric
toties quoties, as the Papists say, whiles ever doth
the orient humour burst forth at intervals upon her
ivory cheek, and gravitate in emulous contrafluence
with your own. Windows, doors and jalousies are
all thrown open to the breezes of night ; flowers and
evergreens give life and verdancy to the walls,
and the golden moon or diamond stars gleam
through the many openings with that rich and sleepy
splendour which good men will see hereafter in Pa-
radise. It is my advice not to drink much ; restrain
yourself till twelve o'clock or so, and then eat
some cold meat and absorb a pint of porter cup,
which is perfectly innoxious to the system, and more
restorative to the animal spirits than punch, wine
or sangaree. Above all do not be persuaded to
swallow any washy tea ; it gives neither strength or
vivacity, but rather impairs both, and makes you
excessively uncomfortable. It is important to re-
20
*
226
ANTIGUA
mark that jour shirt collars should be loose round
the neck, and the gills low ; a mere white stock of
thick holland well starched with arrow-root is the
best cravate ; otherwise with the ordinary appara-
tus your cloth in an hour becomes a rope, and the
entire focale sinks into a state of utter dissolution.
La philosophic est quelque chose, mais laDanse!
-^-said the French lady. Dear maids of the Antil-
les, windward and leeward, it is even so with you !
Sweet are ye at your breakfast of yams and plan-
tains, sweet at your dinner of squash and guinea
fowls, sweet when ye perpetrate political economy,
and urge humanity towards the slaves, but sweeter
than your father's sugars are ye, dear heirs of the
Caribbs, when ye come brilliant and happy to
shine, like Houris in the dance.
Beasts should do
Homage to man, but man shall wait on you.
You are of comelier sight, of daintier touch,
A tender flesh, and colour bright and such
As Parians see in marble ; skin more fair,
More glorious head, and far more glorious hair ;
Eyes full of grace and quickness
A milder white composes
Your stately fronts ; your breath more sweet than his
Breaths spice, and nectar drops at every kiss.
St. John'js is prettily situated on the top and de-
clivities of a moderate eminence on the west side
of the island. The streets are wide and laid out at
ANTIGUA. 227
right angles, and are generally clean. They are
however for the most part stuck full of such purga-
torial stones that 1 doubt if a saint could walk to
Paradise, if the road thither were paved with the
like of them. The Antigonians delight in a vehicle
called a John Bott, which, with the single excep-
tion of the patache from Fontainebleau to Orleans,
is the most inhuman carriage that ever was invented
at the instigation of the Devil for the use of rheu-
matic man. It is in fact the upper moiety of a sen-
try box clapped bodily upon two gig wheels ; up
and down, down and up, this way and that way are
you banged about, till your head aches, your teeth
get on edge, and your stomach is sea-sick ; and pend-
ing all this, you and yours are obnoxious to every
species of caballine ejaculation. Fifty-one thou-
sand black angels, as said the choleric Manchagan,
seize the guilty idolon of John Bott, and trot him
into madness in one of his own creations on the sto-
niest roads of Tartarus !
neque enim lex aequior ulla est,
Quam necis artifices arte peiire sua.
The church is beautifully situated on a point
where the descent towards the sea commences, and
commands a noble prospect of the town, the har-
bour, Fort James, the romantic hills of the Five
Islands, and the ocean in the distance; It is the
finest church, after that unrivalled one in Port of
228 ANTIGUA.
Spain, of any that I saw in the West Indies ; it is not
indeed quite so large as the cathedral in Bridge
Town, but in architecture, arrangement, decoration
and site it is much superior. There is a. large slo-
ping burying ground attached to the church, and
neatly inclosed with a wall. The pillars of the
principal gate on the south side are surmounted by
two good statues of saints which were primarily
intended for the idolatry of Guadaloupe or Marti-
nique, but were fortunately intercepted by a Pro-
testant man of war before they could arrive at the
place of their destination.
I am sorry to say that the unchristian practice of
excluding the corpses of slaves and colored people
from the ordinary burying grounds, and of shovel-
ling them into unconsecrated earth in any out of the
way place, was to be found in Antigua during my stay
there. Conceive the feelings of a respectable free-
colored man, who is forced by this detestable pre-
judice to deposit the body of his wife or daughter in
a place and manner which he well knows every
white christian would consider to the last degree
ignominious ; where he himself has seen the gibbet
erected and (he murderer hanging ! This was ac-
tually the case in St. John's. The Bishop, as I
have said before, expressed his disgust at this usage,
and I hope for the common credit of the colonies
that we shall soon hear that it is universally abo-
lished. The very least that can be done is to inclose
ANTIGUA. 229
the ground, and to take good order that it be as
much respected as the solemnity of its character
demands.
The jail is like most others in the West Indies,
that is to say, as bad in every way as possible.
The windows of some of the rooms look into the
street, and through those on the ground floor any
communication, either of rum or talk, may go on at
all times. The court is a mere swamp of mud and
water with pigs wallowing about in it, and the whole
scene is wretched beyond description. They adopt
here also the practice of turning out gangs of pri-
soners to walk in the streets with a chain about
their legs. It is really amazing that in a colony so
enlightened as Antigua, where their other public in-
stitutions are conducted in a very exemplary man-
ner, such a gross nuisance should be permitted to
remain under the eyes of the Legislature. I am
sure there are men in this island who have sense
enough to see the absurdity as well as the iniquity
of such a prison and such a prison discipline. Mr.
Buxton might do good, if he would turn his thoughts
to this part of the West Indian system. The Afri-
can Institution itself could find no words too strong
wherewith to condemn it.
The Court House is a neat and spacious building,
and contains the chambers for the Council and As-
sembly, and a hall for the administration o[ justice.
The advocates wear gowns and bands, but no wigs,
230 ANTIGUA.
and I am not certain that they keep worse order
amongst themselves, or behave less respectfully to
the bench than may be justified by the -occasional
style of the bar at most of the quarter sessions in
England. There is the same abstinence from irre-
gular interruption, the same urbanity towards each
other, and the same cheerful submission to that de-
cision which the constitution of their country makes
binding on them, which severe critics have predica-
ted of the junior barristers of the mother land.
Whether the colonial bar might not still improve
upon their English model, whether a superior de-
gree of decorum, regularity and legal gravity might
not be introduced, the counsel be less personal and
more argumentative, the bench less easy and more
profound, may deserve the consideration of all the
members of the learned profession in the West In-
dies, . . .they ever bearing in mind that the bench
and the bar are things mutuo dantia et recipientia
honorem, and that where the first is not respected,
the second is usually despised.
I was particularly struck with the extreme neat-
ness of the dresses, and the devout behaviour of
the coloured classes who attended divine service
at St. John's church. It would have been im-
possible to have added any thing to the elegance
and fine style of many of the women. They sat
in great numbers round the rails of the altar, and
it was intended to inclose pews towards the
ANTIGUA. 231
western end for the express purpose of their
being appropriated to separate families. As it is,
the leading persons among the coloured inhabitants
often give it as a reason for not attending the
established service, that they cannot be sure of
finding room for their wives and children with
themselves, and are always liable to the intrusion
of other people who may easily happen to be
such both in demeanour and apparel, as to render
contact with them a serious inconvenience. It is
common justice to concede these points, and
common policy to encourage the feelings which
are connected with them. The free mulattos in
the West Indies would naturally incline rather to
the side which elevates than to that which de-
grades them in society ; they are an obvious bul-
wark of defence to the whites against the blacks ;
and it should seem that nothing but the most
vexatious persecution and injurious antipathies
could convert them into antagonists. In Antigua
they are upon the whole fairly treated, though
there are still many things which should be
granted to them, if not for conscience sake, yet
because it is useless to withhold them. There is
considerable personal property possessed by this
class, and the only or the principal newspaper of
the island is conducted by a coloured man ; a cir-
cumstance which a Barbadian would think im-
ported a tolerable share of liberality in the white
community.
232 ANTIGUA.
There are several schools in the town under
the respective care of Moravians, Methodists and
the missionary of the Society for the Conversion
of Negros. There is also one small school for the
education of white children of both sexes, which,
as far as it went, was in good order, and the
scholars taught to read and speak with a pure
accent. But this last institution must be consi-
derably enlarged, and the boys and girls separated ;
at present it is wholly inadequate to the wants of
the colony or even of the parish. There is no
reason why Antigua, according to its more limited
population, should not furnish instruction to its
native young on the same excellent plan which is
so creditable to Barbados. I cannot but think it
a reproach to the inhabitants of the other islands
that the Central School in Bridge Town should
remain an unique in this part of the West Indies.
I went to see the African Free Apprentices,
who were all drawn up in line in the yard of the
Custom house. They amount to upwards of two
hundred, and consist of natives of the various
coasts of Africa, who have been captured by our
cruisers on board unlawful bottoms and landed at
St. John's. It has been the intention of govern-
ment to bind out these persons as apprentices for
seven years under the ordinary incidents of that
species of service, and to declare them absolutely
free at the expiration of the term. This plan
ANTIGUA.
233
does not at present succeed. As there is no law
to compel the planter to accept the labour of these
apprentices, he naturally consults his own interest
alone in hiring them. Unfortunately these wretch-
ed creatures are for the most part so barbarous
that it has been found almost impossible to induce
them to engage in any regular work, and so pro-
fligate that they universally import disorder and
vice into every plantation where they may be.
Vbout thirty only were of such a character that
they could be safely employed. The rest remain
in idleness or in very useless occupations, and are
maintained entirely at the expense of government.
This is becoming a very serious burthen, and still
increases from quarter to quarter without the
accomplishment, or a hope of the accomplishment,
of any permanent good. It is in vain to represent
to them the superior advantages of independence
and the possession of enjoyments which are only
to be obtained by industry ; it is equally in vain
to tell them of the fertility of Trinidad, where they
may have land given to them on condition of culti-
vating it, and where their labour would be highly
valuable ;. . . nothing moves them, nothing seems to
make them think for a moment of family or fortune,
besides that there is always at bottom a suspicion
lurking in their minds that you are going to entrap
them in some snare of which they are ignorant, and
21
234
ANTIGUA.
from which they shall not afterwards be able to
escape. One short Guinea man, an uncommon
rogue, with lines and slashes tatooed on his fore-
head, cheeks and chin, in token, as he told me, of
his being " a jantleman at home," replied to a very
energetic discourse of mine in the following words :
. . . " Massa, rne tank you for your tongue, but me
like stay here; me like Antigger very well; de
king he do give me two bitt a day, and me no for
go to Trinidad, no not at all." "Who is your
king ?" I asked. " Ki !" retorted my Guinea bird.
u my king! De sam as you, Sare, king George!"
. . . and grinned like one of the last-scene devils in
Don Giovanni in the spirit of his conquest.*
What is further intended with regard to these
Africans, I know not, but certainly much temper
and deliberation are requisite to deal with them be-
neficially. They present within a comparatively
small compass all the difficulties which would ne-
cessarily attend the immediate enfranchisement of
* These Africans are very much disliked by the
Creole slaves. It is common to hear two of them quar-
rel bitterly with each other, when all the curses of Eng-
land and Africa are mutually bought and sold ; but your
right Creole generally reserves his heaviest shot for the
end. After pausing a moment and retiring a few steps,
he saith. . ," You! you!" with the emphasis of a can-
non ball; "who are you, you Willyforce nigger?"
Whereat Congo or Guinea foameth at thetnouth, Creole
evades rejoicing in the last blow.
ANTIGUA. 235
the entire slave population in the colonies ; and
they, who affect to hold those difficulties cheap,
only discover their own consummate ignorance of
a subject, upon which they have nevertheless the
assurance to set themselves up as oracles. If there
were any present or future chance of converting
these barbarians into useful citizens by a lavish ex-
penditure of money upon the actual system, the
tax might be cheerfully borne by the generous phi-
lanthropy of the British people; but in reality this
expense is incurred for the purpose of maintaining
them in a situation in which they are so far from ad-
vancing in civilization, that they become more
vicious and lazy every day that they live. Labour
of every kind they dislike, agricultural labour they
detest. As long as the Crown continues to support
them by a daily pension, they will not generally
work at all; if they were left to themselves, they
would probably labour or steal as it might happen,
to the extent of procuring subsistence, which would
be about a month or so in the course of the year.
To the moral stimulus of bettering their condition,
of acquiring importance and commanding comforts,
they are utterly insensible; they care for none of
those things ; they have no sort of apprehension of
them. Indeed they seem to be practical philoso-
phers, although no great political economists ; and
I have no doubt, if they reason at all, that thcv
conclude the planters to be egregious fools for to;!-
236 ANTIGUA*
ing so heavily, instead of sitting down in the shade
and drinking newTum all the day long.
If the disposition of these negros lay with me, I
would immediately transport them all to Trinidad,
separate them into small troops of fifty each accord-
ing to their own selection, and give each village a
portion of land to clear and cultivate. The clear-
ing of the soil should be effected by task work under
the superintendence of a commandant, and the la-
bourers should receive rations for themselves and
families in the nature of wages for the work done.
When the ground was properly prepared, a reason-
able quantity of it should be apportioned to individu-
als or heads of families, the rations should cease,
and they should hold their land upon this condition
that their share should be kept in a state of cultiva-
tion throughout the year. If this condition were
broken, and the negro were thereby to become bur-
thensome to the community, the commandant
should be directed to confiscate the land to general
purposes, unless any other person would undertake
to keep it in cultivation. The refractory colonist
himself should be dealt with no worse or better than
a vagrant is treated in England, that is to say, he
should be committed to the wholesome correction
of the tread wheel in Port of Spain.
This mode of managing them might succeed ; in
Antigua, or any of the old colonies, where all the
soil is appropriated, these free savages can never
ANTIGUA. 237
be any thing Use but a source of unmingled evil to
the whole society. In Trinidad they may at least
be kept from doing harm, and in whatever degree
they might be induced to labour, the effect of their
industry would be directly beneficial to the island.
The plan is summary and the requisitions perempto-
ry ; but so it must of necessity be with subjects who
(with all due reverence to the human face divine be
it spoken !) are not more docile or reflecting than
some of the beasts that perish. To talk of dealing
with these men in all the circuitous processes of
mature civilization, is foolishness beyond all other
foolishness ; it would not be in the least more ab-
surd to commence a child's arithmetic by attempt-
i ng to teach him circulating decimals before he could
repeat the multiplication table. I am in my con-
science firmly persuaded that the most exact justice
and the greatest mercy we can show towards these
benighted beings, will consist in chalking out for
them a path in which they are to walk, and uniform-
ly to restrain them from wandering out of it. I am
speaking now of the adults only, for although I set
no bounds to the possible improvement in the cha-
racters of grown persons of this stamp, ~*yet it must
be obvious that no general and effectual change will
take place in the bulk of the society, except by la-
bouring in the soft and unprejudiced soil of child-
hood. It cannot be urged too often or to6 strongly
that the instruction of the young is the great object
2t*
2:38 A1YTIGUA
which should engage the attention of all well-wish-
ers to the negro population; towards this deep and
prolific centre aH the forces of philanthropy ought to
converge ; for here that may be done safely and cer-
tainly which at another time and under other cir-
cumstances wili be always attended with some dan-
ger and most commonly with no success. Schools
FOR THE CHILDREN OF THE SLAVES ARE THE FIRST
AND CHIEF STEP TOWARDS AMELIORATION OF CON-
DITION AND MORALS IN EVERY CLASS OF PEOPLE IN
THE WEST INDIES.
The fossils and petrified woods of this island are
pre-eminently beautiful ; they are found on various
parts of the coast by the curious, but the finest spe-
cimens are to be seen in a shop in St. John's. Pro-
fessor Buckland, I think, possesses the petrified root
or a cocoa nut tree in great perfection, and I re-
member seeing the top of a cabbage tree entirely
converted into or enshrined in bluish white chal-
cedony, so pure that the most delicate folds of the
core or young leaves within were visible as through
a piece of plate glass. Brooches and other trinkets
are made of various stones commonly met with
here, but they demand such a very disproportionate
sum for the smallest of them, that a man must have
more money or less wit than he wants if he pur-
chases any.
At Green Castle, an estate of Sir Henry Martin's,
there was a simple and ingenious'plan for diminish-
ANTIGUA. 239
ing the labour of the negroes in carrying the bun-
dles of canes up the acclivity on which the mill is
built. Two light revolving cylinders were mount-
ed, one at the foot of the ascent, the other at the
top ; canvass was tightly stretched over both and
from one to the other, and ledges of wood fastened
across this bridge of communication, against which
the junks of canes rested. The axle of the upper
cylinder was connected with the moving power,
and thereby, as it went round, brought up the canes
in constant succession to the hands of the boatswain
or feeder of the mill. A better plan for the future
would be to have no ascent at all, which is now
generally recognized as the best mode in Barbados.
In Antigua the rollers or cylinders for expressing the
cane juice are usually placed in a horizontal posi-
tion, which arrangement admits of the junks being
spread more equally over the grinder, and conse-
quently of more work being done in the same time
than where the vertical elevation is adopted. There
was also in the farm yard a very clever model of a
vertical windmill, which regulated itself to all winds,
could be furled, reefed or put aback in five seconds,
and was found by experiment to possess more than
double the power of the usual machine. Hereupon
I have imagined a device for sailing ships in the eye
of the wind, which I mean to sell to the Admiralty
for a patent and a few thousand pounds.
There are seven parish churches in the island,
£40 ANTIGUA.
one public chapel, and another private one neatly
fitted up by Mr. Gilbert for the use of his own
slaves. There are many establishments of Mora-
vians who live in a quiet and inobtrusive way, arid
have done much good in educating the young negros
on the plantations to the extent that was permitted
to them. They are chiefly Germans, and seem a
remarkably kind and worthy sort of people. Anti-
gua is the head quarters of the Methodists, and they
swarm in every direction. With that sense of pro-
priety, that modest withdrawing of themselves
which characterizes this sect, they have built their
meeting house in St. John's as in Basseterre, close
to the church, and really make such a disagreeable
noise with their incessant attempts to sing, that I am
persuaded an indictment would lie in England
against them for causing a public nuisance. Surely
these good folks might be a little sotto voce in their
canticles ; the introduction of a minor key would
be a grateful relief to every ear. They shun three
flats as they would so many surplices. What would
Charles Wesley have said at their outraging the
spheres after such a sort ?
In one of the churches, St. Mary's I think, there
is a gravestone with an inscription recording the
sepulture of the first white Creole who was born
in the island after its colonization. His name was
Rowland Williams and he seems to have lived to a
great age. The Latin would not have escaped the
WTIGLA. 241
critic thumbnail at Eton in my time, but that is a
trifle.
The President, Mr. Athill, entertained us with
great hospitality in the government house during
our stay in the island. Moreover he gave us a
very smart ball, whereat I surveyed at leisure the
beauty and fashion of the colony. And, if 1 were
put upon my oath, I believe I should say that the
maidens of Antigua dress better than the maidens
of Barbados ; peradventure also they dance with
superior style. Yet I only speak of the average ;
for I know one Fanny and one Eliza to windward
who would beat them all, especially in a reel.
Every evening we used to be serenaded by a regu-
lar band of frogs, lizards and crickets who per-
formed exceedingly well. The first intoned the
base, the second rung out a fine metallic tenor, and
the last added a brilliant treble. Sometimes the
concert was considerably improved by a stray snake
joining in an occasional overture ; a few monkeys
from Trinidad would have made the music com-
plete.
Montserrat and Barbuda are comprised within
this government which I should think a pleasant one.
The roads are passable for man and beast, and it is
not often that the natives are obliged to drink down
to the worms in the tanks. Once, I believe, many
years ago, it was necessary to import water from
Montserrat, which, being dead to leeward, was rather
a precarious source of supply.
242 ANTIGUA.
N. B, " AntigoniaH" is not the proper formati$>n<
of the adjective ; it should be " Antiguan," for
which there is a conclusive authority in a MS,
poem penes me, the work of a distinguished poet
of the colony ; —
All hail, thou prodigy, ne'er seen before
Or on Barbadian, or Antiguan shore !
BARBUDA.
The Collector of the Customs at St. John's.
George Wyke, a very civil gentleman and inge-
nious withal, who builds coaches with no insides
and sees land before it comes in sight, (a remark-
ably useful talent at sea,) offered to convey us in
his fine topsail schooner to this island. I dare en-
gage the Poetess never carried so worshipful a crew
before; indeed how government went on in Anti-
gua during our absence, I know not; for the Presi-
dent left the Council, the Speaker the Assembly,
Captain Lyons his estates, Mr. Turner his Mort-
gages, the Aide-de-camp his attendance and carv-
ing knife, and the Collector the receipt of Cus-
tom : add to these the Bishop, excellent and inde-
fatigable, the only one upon his vocation, the Re-
gent of Barbuda, a Kittiphonian parson and the
poor soul who made this book.
Blessedly sick fell this honourable company as
soon as the Poetess began to sing Dutch between
the Sisters. Every prophylactic was at hand, but
what avail cider cup or soda water against a close
haul within four points and a half of the wind upon
. T&
244 BAKBUDA*
a heavy swell? The mighty fell, as Ossian sayg',
like pie crust acpund me; the Aide-de-camp de-
camped in ignota loca, the parson poured forth, like
St. Anthony, to the fishes, the Lyons got into a den.
the mortgagee was himself foreclosed, and the ex-
cellent Nugent lay like a piece of stratified con-
glomerate with his nose bobbing into the saline
draught which the Poetess shipped to leeward.
What did it profit him then to know that clay lies
above sand or sand above clay, or even that the
world was made before the creation ?
Barbuda bears due north from St. John's, and
is about thirty miles distant. It is so low and level
that I at least could not distinctly make it out, till
we were within four miles from it. The coast is
beset with shoals and reefs under water, and it was
a matter of some anxiety to see how the vessel in-
sinuated itself, as it were, between these rocks, a
man standing on the bowsprit and giving his direc-
tions every minute to the helm. We got to land in
about six hours from our setting out.
Here some of the party mercilessly oppressed
the sides of certain macilent and cat-ham'd crea-
tures which the natives from ignorance suppose to
be horses ; they are ten hands in height and their
necks and heads fall from the shoulder in an angle
of forty-five degrees below the horizon. Four of
us invaded the state carriage which came down
from the castle for the express purpose of import-
RARBUBA. 245
aig us. It had been, in times whercunto the memory
of no man or woman could run, a gentleman's coach
in England, then stood hackney on a stand, then had
been done up and sold to a West Indian ; the West
Indian sold it to a man who cut it ddwn, twisted the
seats about and started it as a public conveyance
between St. John's and English Harbour. In this
period of its existence, when Longacre was long
since dead within it, the Regent of Barbuda saw it
and admired, looked and sighed, sighed and looked ;
its honest, unsophisticated springs, its veteran co-
lour won his approbation, and 'Had I such an one
in mine isle,' he cried,
" My wife and children two
Should ride, and I would too,
Down the mead and the lane leading from my castle
gate ;
A nigger fore and aft,
A nigger on the shaft,
And a pair of island Arabs to draw us on in state."
In this vehicle we sat an hour under one of the
most undeniable tempests of rain I ever was caught
in, whilst we painfully moved on at a foot's pace
over the grassy track which led from the shore to
the castle. The vegetation on either side was
something of the character of that in Anguilla, but
much larger in its dimensions ; it appeared here
more like a young forest, f.he trees and bushes being
so high as to preclude the possibility of seeing twen-
22
246 BARBUDA. \
i ...
ty yards to the right hand or left of the road. The
surface of the country is at the same time such a
dead level, except an inconsiderable hillock at the
other end of the island, that none but the veteran
woodsmen can traverse it with certainty. This
forest is well stocked with uncommonly fine deer,
and a certain number of the slaves are the recogniz-
ed gamekeepers of the island. These men are call-
ed the Huntsmen ; they wear a leathern cap, a belt
round their shoulders with a long clasp knife stuck
in it, and a rude kind of half-boots. They general-
ly possess a horse each, a duck gun and dogs, and,
I believe, have little else to do except to maintain
themselves and procure venison whenever it is
wanted. The worst is, the fellows always fire with
slugs ; so that usually the haunch is lacerated in sun-
dry places in a manner vexatious to the cook, and
inconvenient to the consumer. Some of us were
up to a regular chase, but upon an inspection of the
universal stud of the colony, we found there was no
horse of more than two miles-an-hour power, and
besides, the thickets were so close that riding after
a stag would have been impracticable. There was
one most beautiful tree which had more of the ap-
pearance of a young flowering arbutus than any
thing else that I remember, some called it the clam
cherry, which is a species of malpighia common in
Antigua and Barbados, but I did not think it the
same. I am sure its extreme elegance and singulari-
BARBUDA.
24*
ty would attract the attention of any one who went
to Barbuda.
We arrived at the castle as wet as water can make
the outside lendings of man. Our bags and port-
manteaus were nearly in the same condition ; but
with the Regent's wardrobe of shirts, stockings,
sailors' trowsers and jackets, we contrived to array
ourselves de novo, and were then in high spirits for
turtle soup and venison. We were all in glorious
masquerade ; the aide-de-camp multa minans against
the bucks with his new rifle, Turner not only jocose
in himself, but a cause of jocoseness in others, the
Collector starboard and Lyons larboard, and Nugent,
who had by this time erected himself into a perpen-
dicular, cutting and butting as whilome when he
tipped the arrows of the young Edinburgh Review
with good nature. I am bound in justice to say that
I ate a good dinner. If a man, who can discern be-
tween the evil and the good, will consider how few
good dinners he meets with in this state of exist-
ence, how chequered and uneven is his lot upon this
great point, he will do well to note and remember
and be grateful for a satisfactory entertainment.
Here we had land crabs, which they keep and fatten
in crabberies under lock and key ; they are the best
in the Windward Islands, and are a most savoury
and delicate morsel to be sure. Squeeze a little
limejuice over the crab, and the meat will be more
lively and have a sort of tang, as Isaac Barrow said
on a somewhat similar occasion.
248 " ft Mi-: mmvfim
^ x .
s
L, The mosquitos afg^fco^terrible in this- place l^"t|S
there was no sitting in peace^ till some oakum was
lighted and green le&ves thrown upoii it, which
produced a great smoke atfd effectually Banished
them. It would require some famSliar acquaint-
ance with these gents the mosquitos to- believe th^t
this lacrymose smoke* was an- exchange for the
better. But he who once has heard that shrill
hostile clang about his nose or cheeks, and knows
that the winged wretch only waits till he has found
out the softest and most delicate cranny of your
face, in which to fix his cursed proboscis, and
thereout suck your Christian blood, leaving behind
him redness and'swellingand itching and pustule ;..•
this man would rather sit in the smoke of a brew-
ery than be at the tender mercy of these unwea-
ried plagues of fallen man.
I slept on a sofa, and the Aide-de-camp on the
floor by my side, and we defeated the mosquitos
by throwing a curtain over two chairs and fastening
it to the two window-shutters, under cover of which
we both snoozed away like watchmen.
The next morning before breakfast I bathed
in the Lagoon, which lies immediately before the
castle, where no sharks need be apprehended,
but a stray baracouta or so may occasionally take
his pastime therein. These fish have the most
* lacrimosb non sine fumo
Udos cum foliis ramos, &c.
■ ■
♦ARBUD A. 'Zty
abominable propensities i&the world, and really
; all men (ft>r it does not concern wom$ri) shou.l<J
make a point of murdering and exterminating
these barbarous brutes by all the means in their
power. The negros repeated to me many in-
stances of the inhuman appetite of these monsters,
and they all seemed to prefer the honest highway
robbery of a shark to the cowardly cutpurse at-
tack of the baracouta. After firing away a pound
of gunpowder after whole flocks of snipes and gulls
and curlieus, I went home to breakfast, where the
flies swarmed in such a manner as I had never seen
before in the West Indies. A boy stood by the
table all the meal, and waved a branch of some
bush over the dishes and cups, but this only just
disturbed the hungry creatures, and irritated mc
beyond measure.
Two parties were now formed, one to ride into
the interior of the island, the other to sail over
the Lagoon and see the seine drawn. I chose
the latter, and it was one of the memorable days
which I passed in the West Indies. The Lagoon
is a magnificent piece of brackish water seven
miles square and communicating on the north
west by a long flash, as they call it, or river with a
large bay, which again is separated from the outer
sea by a black reef of rocks, over the top of which
the breakers rush and dash in a tempest of foam,
ft was upon this reef that H. M. S. Woolwich was
22*
250 barb^a.
wrecked, and' is now commonly called Sir Bethel
Codrington's copper mine/ K
We set sail from the quay m.*two schooners with
about thirty n^gros^v These list are, like the Hunts-
men, a regular class amongst the slaves, called the
Fishermen, and attend almost exclusively to pisca-
torial pursuits. They supply a certain quantity of
the provisions destined for the consumption of the
island. Away we went beforeT the wind in fine
style and raced our companions for two miles, when
the wind getting round more ahead, and they not
bracing up their yards sharp enough, we shot, by
them so far that they never fetched us again. We
had guns on board to shoot the flamingos which
usually harbour on a sandy shoal at the mouth of
the flash, but we saw none, and it was said to be
too early in the year for them.
This flash, which connects the Lagoon with the
bay, winds in a clear river stream through a low
forest of mangroves. No natural object pleases
me more than green trees growing out, or on the
margin, of the sea or the lake, and in no part of
the world is this more beautifully seen than in the
West Indies. What European has not been pene-
trated with wonder and delight on first entering
Carlisle Bay, and gazing on the long avenues of
cocoa nut trees which fringe the border of the
sky-blue waters! How has he looked with a travel-
ler's curiosity at their bare and ring-striped stems.
UAJtBUDA. 251
their hanging clusters o%t>lessed fruit, and the
strange tufts of branch : like leaves which fall irregu-
larly over them ! A&d ihen the dark and stately
and awful manchineel,*tne beautiful and noxious—
which, by a mystery of kincmess, grows on the
brink of the salt wave that the best and cheapest
remedy for its corrosive juice may ever be at hand,*
— the white-wood, another lenitive, and the bushy
sea-side grape with its broad leaves and bunches
of pleasant berries forming a verdant matting or
table, — these or some or one of these meet the
delighted eye of the mariner, as he approaches the
lowlands of almQst all the intertropical islands.
After the negros had carried us ashore on their
shoulders, they anchored the schooners, and all leap-
ed stark naked into the water and let down the net.
It was a scene of the Sandwich Islands. The two
rough fishing vessels, the desert strand, the wild
* The common stories about the fatal shade of this
tree are as fabulous as the changing colours of the dy-
ing dolphin. The shade is as harmless as any other
shade. The fact is, the juice of the manchineel is
highly corrosive and easily extracted ; so that rain
water or a heavy dew will contract upon the leaves or
branches so much of the poison as would certainly blis-
ter any flesh it fell upon. The manchineel is very line
timber, and the negros usually smear themselves over
with grease, when they are about to fell it. It is also a
common trick with them to blister their backs with the
juice in order to excite the compassion of those who
mistake it for the effects of beating.
252 BARBUDA.
birds, and noisy black men rolling and tumbling
about in the sea made me almost doubt my locality.
When the net became contracted, and the extremi-
ties of it almost dragged on shore, the negros outside
laughing and splashing and bullying the prisoners,
the fishes with one consent became desperate and
made a grand sortie by leaping with prodigious
force and agility five or six feet out of the water, and
fairly clearing the heads of the fishermen. About
a hundred escaped in this manner; we secured
more than that number of all sorts, but chiefly bara-
coutas. There were gold and silver fish, snappers,
Spanish mackarel, kingfish, two adolescent sharks
who would have amputated a baby's arm as soon as
looked at it, and three or four bloody, glutinous,
cylindrical beasts without head, fins or tail, for
which I know not the Latin appellation, and the
trivial name is so peculiar that I cannot find in my
heart to write it. I urged another haul of the net,
when we caught about a hundred and twenty more
fine fellows about a foot and a half in length on an
average. The domestics soon set up some bricks,
lighted a fire, and broiled us a fresh baracouta,
which with our spices and other additaments was
really excellent. A tumbler of beer and two glass-
es of wine made me feel comfortable again, for there
was no shade, and the sun had almost sucked all the
liquid out of my system. When we had embarked
BARBUDA. 253
our prey, we weighed anchor, and bore away down
the flash amongst the green trees, and got back to
the quay by six in the evening.
Barbuda is holden under a long lease from the
crown by Sir Bethel Codrington upon the service
of presenting a fat sheep to the commander-in-chief
of Antigua, whenever he visits the island. This is
generally commuted for a turtle or a buck. The
inhabitants are two white overseers, one of them a
German, and about four hundred slaves. Mr.
James, the attorney of the estate, visits them occa-
sionally and at those times resides in the old castle
with his family. No sugar is grown in the island,
and the labor consists in raising provisions and
building droghers. The slaves speak very good
English and in reality have little more of servitude
in their condition than the name. At the instance
of the Bishop it has been agreed to build a church
sufficient to contain the population, and a school
will of course be an accompaniment to it. I think,
if this island were carefully managed, it might be
made very flourishing, and the negros be easily
civilized.
We were nearly capsized by a very severe squall
in sight of St. John's on our return, and there are
such nests of reefs and shoals in every direction
that it is particularly dangerous to scud. The
Poetess behaved like a man, and came up two or
4C
254 BAfeBUDA.
three times with her gib only, the main sheet flying
in the wind. We left English Harbour on the 20th
of June, and, after weathering Deseada with great
difficulty, got back to Carlisle Bay once more on
the evening of the 24th.
BARBADOS
jLivery one knows that the commissioned officers
of His Majesty's army stand a far better chance
with the fair sex than any other class of His Majes-
ty's subjects. Whether they wear scarlet, light
blue, or green, whether they ride on horses or walk
on foot, whether they carry mustachois or not —
c'est egal ; they attract women with a charm, infect
at sight, and fascinate by a turn of the heel. But
no where are they so killing as in the colonies ;
there they are undisputed masters of white and
black, fair and foul ; they revel in conceded prefe-
rence, and give no quarter to Creolian susceptibility.
A blue or a black coat is always in the awkward
squad of a ball-room, and even first lieutenants of
the navy are generally sent into the after-guard.
But though the garrison loves, the garrison does not
marry ; they are better accommodated, as the man
says in the play, and many, many a pale and dark-
eyed girl, who has pinned her heart on the merry
cheek of England or the blue glances of the High-
lands, has only awakened from her dream when the
topsails of the homeward transport have sunk under
the ocean.
256 Barbados.
I dislike th^man, swordsman or not, who delibe-
rately trifles with the affections of a woman. I
would rather shake hands with a highwayman than
with a gentleman who has sacrificed to his own va-
nity the life-long happiness of an inexperienced
girl. I fear this sort of conduct has never yet been
sufficiently reprobated, and females too often be-
tray the cause of their sex by accepting with pride
the homage of a man, who has become notorious
for the conquest and desertion of their sisters ; — as
if his mercy and love could be depended upon, who
has once been cruel to an affectionate woman!
The world laughs, and store of lying proverbs and
stupid jests on the briefness of woman's love are
administered ; but you will find, if your heart be
not hardened by selfishness, that this will be in vain.
Perhaps you had no intention of being serious, you
only flirted, tried to be agreeable, and to please for
the moment ; you had no conception that your be-
haviour could be misconstrued, and you shudder
at the bare thought of earning the icy damnation
of a seducer. It may be so, for there is a descent
to the hell of seduction, though that descent is per-
niciously easy, and
Nemo repente fuit turpissimus ;
but what if, while you were meaning nothing, your
trifling created anguish, your sport became death
to the poor object of it? When by exclusive at-
• .".-V
ihubauo^ 257
fcntions you have excited rejrar<LJKv tlic develop-
ment of talent, or by the display Snd devotion of
personal graces you have fastin^ied the mind and
the heart, when by the meeting and the sinking eye,
the faltering voice, the fervid tone, the retained
hand, you have awakened the passion which you
cannot lay; when you have wilfully done this in
the cold blood of vanity, and it suits your con-
venience or your sated coxcombry to finish the
scene by an altered mien, a distant courtesy, or an
expression of surprise at the unexpected effects of
your civility — will you be able to quiet your con-
science with a jest ? Will you sleep on an adage
of fools and a lie of your own ? What if the poor
being, whose hopes you have changed into despair,
whose garden you have blasted with mildew and
rust, whose heaven you have flarkened for ever-
more, shall suffer in silence, striving to bear her
sorrow, praying for cheerfulness, pardoning without
forgetting you, till the worm has eaten through to
the life, and the body is emaciate which you have
led in the dance, the voice broken on which you
have hung, the face wan which you flattered, and
the eyes frightfully bright with a funereal lustre
which used to laugh radiancy and hope and love
when they gazed upon you/ What if a prouder
temper, a more ardent imagination, and a stronger
constitution, should lead to spite and impatience
and recklessness of good and ill ; if the experience
23
■S>8 BARBADOS.
of your falsehood should induce a general scepti-
cism of any truth in any man ; if a hasty and a
loveless marriage should be the rack of her soul, or
the provocative of her sin ? Is there mandragora
could drug you to sleep while this was on your me-
mory, or does there really live a man who could
triumph in such bitter woe ?
But
varium et mutabile semper
Fcemina.
O, believe it not ! For the dear sake of our house-
hold gods, call it and cause it to be a lie! Be ye
sure that coquettes are the refuse of their sex, and
were only ordained to correspond with the cox-
combs of ours. Women have their weaknesses and
plenty of them, but they are seldom vicious like
ours, and as to their levity of heart, who shall com-
pare the worldly skin-deep fondness of a man with
the one rich idolatry of a virtuous girl ? A thou-
sand thoughts distract, a thousand passions are a
substitute for, the devotion of a man ; but to love
is the purpose, to be loved the consummation, to be
faithful the religion of a woman 5 it is her all in all,
and when she gives her heart away, she gives a
jewel which, if it does not make the wearer richer
than Croesus, will leave the giver poor indeed.
Eugenia, with every faculty do I love thee 5
thine am 1, in union or separation, to my life's end ;
yet I wish to throw up my sweet service, for I can-
BARBADOS, 25#
not love as I ought; I am mudd^, sulky, selfish, vain
and stupid, fn visions by night, in musings by day.
in noise and in silence, in crowds #nd in the wil-
derness, I have thought I saw thee;? alone or not, the
glossy tangles sleeping coiled on snow, the lips of
rose half open, the old romance, the lake, the
mountain, the cousin star of beauty— twin divini-
ties of Vallombrosa. O could I really see, could I
really hear, really hold that white and soft and
faithful hand ;
So white, so soft, so delicate, so sleek,
As she had worn a lilly for her glove !
Behold the force of imagination ; for I write thi?^
in Barbados on the shores of the Atlantic with thr
trade wind blowing in my face !
Intervalla vides humane commoda.
It is all one for that ; I swear from Camoens,
Antes sem vos meus olhos se entristegao,
Que com qualquer cousa oUtra se contentern,
Antes os esquegais que vos esquegao ;
Antes nesta lembranga se atormentem,
Que com esquegimento desmeregao
A gloria, que em sofrer tal pena sen tern —
of which I can give but one translation in the
world —
Ah ! quanto minus est cum reliquis versari,
Quam tui meminisse.*
■* I cannot pass by the name of Camoens,
Magna sacri Camoentis umbra,
260
BARBADOS.
At the bottom of a little glen in Turner's Hall
Wood, one of the two remnants of the virgin forest
of the island, is a small pool or spring of water. It
is perfectly cold, though by its constant bubbling it
appears to be in a state of ebullition. If you pass
an ignited match or candle over its surface, the air
bursts into flames and shoots upwards in a long qui-
vering column of light. A poor white woman
shows the burning spring, and what with her dishe-
velled hair and young black Flibbertigibbet by her
side, she looked as like a real witch and an imp of Sa-
tanas attending on her as any thing I ever saw.
The cabbage palm, the locust, the bully, the cedar
and the mahogany grow around the spot, and the
as my friend Lonsdale called it, without saying that a
poet should almost, if not altogether, as soon learn Por-
tugueze to read his sonnets as Italian to read Petrarch.
Lord Strangford gives as just a notion of Camoens as
Pope does of Homer. No poetry on earth exceeds in
magical sweetness some of his verses, and there is a
reality and a human tenderness in his thoughts and
wishes and prayers that seem to come from the heart of
the maimed and persecuted sailor. It is remarkable
that of all the numerous versions and paraphrases of
the theme of the 137th psalm, that of the Portugueze
seems unquestionably the sweetest and most original.
De Babel sobre os rios nos sentamos,
De nossa doce Patria desterrados,
As maos na face, os olhos derribados,
Com saudades de ti, Siao, choramos, &c.
The Exile was sitting on the shore at Macao, his
guitar by his side, his eye on the ocean and his heart on
the Tagus.
BARBADOS.- 261
woman complained of the mischievous tricks of
certain boys who would set fire to the spring and
endanger the existence of the whole wood. The
phenomenon is caused by a constant escape of sul-
phuretted hydrogen gas. The place belongs to Sir
Henry Fitzherbert.
In the pleasant garden or wilderness attached
to Mr. Forster Clarke's house in Bridge Town, is
one, and I believe the last, specimen of that singu-
lar tree which is said to have induced the Por-
tugueze to call the island Barbados. It is usually
taken to be a banyan, but if the tree which I
saw in Nevis was the true banyan, this certainly
is not one. This tree shot out no suckers from
its own branches, but was covered in an extra-
ordinary manner with a net of weeds and creep-
ers, and had great mats of twisted tendrils hanging
down from the top and waving in the wind. Some
of these were so like the long beard of an old
goat or Jew, that I have no doubt of the truth
of this derivation of the name. Near it is a cu-
rious palm, which has grown in a serpentine form
on the surface of the earth, and by its prickly
bark, its sinuous folds and elevated crest of branch-
es represents most forcibly to the imagination some
huge dragon or serpent of knightly romance.
In consequence of the large white population
in Barbados there exists a class of people which
I did not meet with in any other of the islands.
By the laws of the colony every estate is obliged
23*
262 BARBADOS.
to maintain a certain number of whites in propor-
tion to its extent. These men are called the
Tenantry, and have an indefeasible interest for
their lives in a house and garden upon the re-
spective plantations. Tfeey owe no fealty to the
landlord, make him no acknowledgment, and en-
tertain no kind of gratitude towards him. The
militia is principally composed of these persons,
and with the exception of that service, the great-
est part of them live in a state of complete idle-
ness, and are usually ignorant and debauched to the
last degree. They will often walk half over the
island to demand alms, and if you question them
about their mode of life and habits of daily la-
bor, they stare in your face as if they were ac-
tually unable to comprehend the meaning of your
discourse. The women who will work at all, find
employment in washing and mending the clothes
of the negros, and it is notorious that in many ca-
ses whole families of these free whites depend for
their subsistence on the charity of the slaves. Yet
they are as proud as Lucifer himself, and in virtue
of their freckled ditchwater faces consider them-
selves on a level with every gentleman in the island.*
* A woman of this class, in extreme distress, asked
for a quarter dollar, for less than that they will not take.
Upon her complaining of the expense of candles, and a
friend of mine asking her why she did not burn oil, as he
himself did, she answered with a turn of her nose ; " I
hope I am scornful to burn oili"
BARBADOS." 263
No English resident in the West Indies, however
little conversant with the administration of justice
in his native country, can fail to be struck with the
system prevalent in the colonies. It is not easy to
overrate the importance of an enlightened and im-
partial judicature in any place or at any time, but
the peculiar circumstances of society in these isl-
ands, render its existence absolutely indispensable.
In all communities where slavery is established,
there ought to be good laws to protect the slaves,
and independent judges to enforce their provisions ;
if there be neither one nor the other, or if there be
one without the other, in either case one great cor-
rective of the excesses of the free, one greafgua-
rantee of the safety of the bond, one great fountain
of civilization throughout the whole state, will be
lost. As long as the slave confides in the protection
of a power superior to his master, he will probably
labour in tranquillity ; but if he finds that there is no
such power, or that such power is prejudiced
against him, it is nothing but an ordinary impulse of
human nature that in case of oppression he should
strive to obtain that by his violence which has been,
or which he suspects will be, denied to his petition.
In Barbados the laws are administered by some
twenty-seven or twenty-eight judges. They are
all planters or merchants and are appointed by the
Governor. Not one of them has ever been educa-
ted for the bar, nor is any previous knowledge of
264 BARBADOS.
the law a necessary or an usual qualification for the
office. They neither comprehend the extent, nor
are agreed upon the validity of the laws which they
are called upon t6 interpret; they can none of
them settle the limits of British and colonial enact-
ments ; they adhere to no fixed principles ; they
are bound by no precedents. The powers of a
Chancellor are exercised by the Governor and the
Council which consists of thirteen members, and it
is next to impossible in so small a community that
any cause should come into court in which some of
these judges will not be directly or indirectly
interested. I make no charge nor intend any in-
sinuation whatever of corrupt practices ; but giving
them full credit for integrity of purpose, T must say
that they stand in a situation which, according to
the spirit of the British Constitution, incapacitates
them from exercising anyjudicial authority. Their
ignorance of, or shallow acquaintance with, the
duties of their office must either subject their de«
cisions to the influence of the Attorney General,
or it may cause them in moments of wrongheaded-
ness or passion to violate every form of law and
trample upon every principle of justice.
The evil is not so great in the other colonies,
because in them a single judge presides in court
and preserves a certain uniformity of practice and
interpretation. But few, if any, of these have been
educated to the profession, and though the talents
BARBADOS. ? 265
of one or two of them are very distinguished and their
characters unimpeachable, yet their legal knowledge
of course is not of that admitted weight which can
alone render the administration of criminal and
civil justice satisfactory to the community or even
equitable in itself. It would probably be difficult
to change this system entirely, as many colonial
interests are connected with it, but if the field were
free and the whole matter res integra, it would be
easy to demonstrate the general and lasting advan-
tages deducible from the adoption of the Ionian or
East Indian plan. An English barrister of a rea-
sonable standing, with a competent salary, and a
strict disability of holding any property or filling
any other office within his jurisdiction, would be a
powerful engine of reformation in a West Indian
colony. The Crown appoints to these places at
present, and therefore no objection could be raised
upon the score of unjust interference. Indeed the
wise and benevolent among the colonists themselves
would soon perceive and appreciate the benefits of
the change.
In Barbados the qualifications of an elector and
a representative are the same, namely, the nominal
possession of ten acres of land, whether worth ten
pounds or ten pence. The Assemblies are chosen
annually and consist of two deputies from every
parish. The Council is appointed by the Crown,
and the members usually hold their seats for life*
266 BARBADOS.
With such a qualification as I have mentioned be-
fore, it is obvious that the Assembly will not neces-
sarily represent, or be guided by, the property and
knowledge of the community; and hence it has
occasionally happened that this body, in order to
add a cubit to its natural stature and gather a few
annual roses of distinction and popularity has com-
menced squabbles and perpetrated flatteries too
diminutive for the ambition of a Cornish borough.
The fault indeed is in the constitution rather than
in the men. Barbabos and most of the other West
Indian colonies appear externally to be governed
on the model of England, but in reality they parti-
cipate in a small degree in the genuine spirit of the
mother country. They are practical republics,
and present as faithful a picture of the petty states
of old Greece as the change of manners and reli-
gion will allow. There is the same equality
amongst the free, the same undue conception of
their own importance, the same restlessness of
spirit, the same irritability of temper which has
ever been the characteristic curse of all little com-
monwealths. The old remark that the masters of
slaves, if free themselves, are always the freest of
the free, is as eminently true of them as it was of
the citizens of Athens or Sparta ; submission from
those below them is so natural to them that submis-
sion to any one above them seems unnatural, and
that which would be considered as advice or remon*
BARBADOS, 207
strance in England is resented in the West Indies
as interference or tyranny. To suppose that a
Major-Genera I or a Rear-Admiral, who depends
for the best part of his pay upon the generosity of
the colonists themselves, can effectually represent
the office of the king in the British constitution, is
quite idle ; he is the governor and nothing more
than the governor, and the principle of honour,
which Montesquieu with some reason asserts to be
at least a great spring of action in all constitutional
monarchies, does not exist in the colonies. I use
the term honour in the sense of Montesquieu, and
mean nothing with regard to the conduct of indi-
viduals. The forms of the English Parliament are
too gigantic for the capacities of little islands ; the
colonists are not elevated by the size, but lost in the
folds of the mighty robe which was never destined
for their use.
The colonies of a free state are more embarrass-
ing problems of government than those of a coun-
try where the monarch is absolute. The Spanish
possessions in America were twenty times as big as
Old Spain ; yet were they for three centuries regu-
lated by an European Council, which, with the
exception of its errors in commerce and prejudices
concerning race and rank, governed them well, and
ultimately effected the reception of those human-
izing decrees which have justly raised the name of
the Spanish Colonists over those of any other
268 BARB^BOSu
*
nation. Nothing lay between the king of Spain
and the Mexican or Peruvian Creole except the
Atlantic, an<J although the space of separation was
great, the arm.of power steadily raised was at most
times able to reach across it. A different relation
arises between a free nati'dn and its distant colonies.
They carry their freedom with them, and claim a
right to the same or similar privileges wherever
they exist within the pale of their own empire. A
thousand Englishmen leave England and settle an
island in another hemisphere.. How shall they be
governed ? Not by the king alone.; for the king of
England is no despot ;— not by Parliament, — for
they are not represented in Parliament ; therefore
the spirit of the Constitution is obliged to grant to
them and their heirs the forms of the Constitution,
and they must govern themselves like the rest of
their fellow-subjects with the consent of the com-
mon Executive. If then they have a charter, or a
right without a charter, to be governed in this man-
ner, where is there room for the parliament of ano-
ther part of the empire, in which their property
does not lie, where they themselves do not reside,
wherein they are neither actually or virtually repre-
sented, to legislate absolutely for them ? If the
case of the United States is to be holden to be
good law, it is a conclusive authority that such in-
teference would be unconstitutional.
You have no right to tax the people of Massa-
■ ■>
HftftBADOS. 269
chusetls, said Lord Chatham to the British Par-
liament. Good. The people of Massachusetts
were taxed to the amount of a penny or two per
cent, on their incomes for stamped paper. They
refused to pay this tax and were accounted in the
House of Lords good Whigs for so dong.
You have a right to take one or two or three
or six days labour of their slaves from the people
of Jamaica, Barbados or Antigua, say a large party
in this country; that is, the British Parliament has
a right to tax the West Indians to the amount
of 10 or 20 or 30 per cent, on their property
without their consent. If they grumble at this,
they are not Whigs or Tories or even Radicals, but
the language of England is exhausted in inflicting
terms of abuse.
Between the refusal of the New Englanders to
pay a tax imposed by the British Parliament and
the refusal of the West Indians to legislate for their
slaves in the terms of the British Parliament, I can
perceive one collateral ingredient of difference,
and one only — — Relative Force. The recusants
in both cases claim the same British privileges,
show the same original foundation, and plead the
same express charters; they both insist that they
have a right to be governed by those only who,
according to the provisions of the constitution,
represent them ; that they are not represented
actually in the British Parliament, because they
* 24
s f
270 BARBADOS.
depute no member to thati^assembly ; and that they
are not represented virtually in the British Parlia-
ment, for the best of all reasons that they are actu-
ally represented elsewhere. The North Americans
indeed were too much for us ; the West Indians
may be crushed by a wave w Mr. Canning's hand.
If the people of Boston had a right to resist, and
the people of Jamaica have not a right to resist,
then Might makes Right, and a Right without
Might is no Right at all.
That there is a distinction in the morality of the
cases I admit, but that affects not the question.
Every power which the Constitution possesses,
statutes, orders in council, proclamations, in every
age of its existence from Elizabeth to George III..
has authorized, encouraged and confirmed the right
of the colonists to the services of their slaves; and
to say now, because the spirit of the times is unfa-
vourable to the tenure, that the existence of slavery
in the colonies is unconstitutional is either paying
the Constitution a compliment which it does not
deserve, or is the same humane equivocation with
the assertion that slavery is inconsistent with the
precepts of the Christian religion. That the spirit
of that religion tends to abolish servitude is clear ;
that it admits of servitude is eveR still clearer.*
* The authorized translation very pardonably misre-
presents St. Paul. The " servants," whom the Apostle
BARBADOS, 271
Lord Chatham, Mr. Burke and the old Whigs
before the French cross, when they disclaimed the
municipal power of the British Parliament to affect
the property of the colonists, asserted at the same
time its imperial right to control the measures of the
colonies in extreme cases. " As to the metaphysi-
cal refinements," said Lord Chatham, " attempting
to show that the Americans are equally free from
obedience and commercial restraints, as from taxa-
tion for revenue, as being unrepresented here ; I
pronounce them futile, frivolous and groundless."
;t The Parliament of Great Britain," said Mr.
Burke, " sits at the head of her extensive empire in
two capacities; one as the local legislature of this
island, providing for all things at home, immediately,
and by no other instrument than the executive
power; the other, and I think her noble capacity,
is what I call her imperial character ; in which, as
from the throne of heaven, she superintends all the
several inferior legislatures, and guides and controls
them all without annihilating any. As all these
provincial legislatures are only co-ordinate to each
other, they ought all to be subordinate to her. It
enjoins to be subject to their masters, were literally
bond slaves, ol dovtyi vrtaxovsrs* ro7g xvpioig. . . and the
fact is unquestionable from what follows ; slSorsg on o
sav ti sxatfrog <7foiY)<fr\ aya^ov, rouro xoixisTrai tfapa <rou
Kupiou, sirs SovXog, sirs iKsjfepog, . . .whether a slave or
whether a freeman.
s.
'272
is necessary to coerce the negligent, to res$Htjn*the
violent, and to aid "the weak and deficie^tjbythe
over-ruling plenitude of .her power." That this
distinction is groundless in theory I do not doubt y
that it is absolutely necessary in practice I fully
admit. The conflict between the forms of Consti-
tution and the necessities of .Government is the
peculiar offspring and inseparable characteristic of
free colonies. The eternal difficulties and appa-
rent contradictions, to which they give birth, are
enough to convince us that Transatlantic Empire is
not according to the natural disposition of human
society. It originates rights which cannot be de-
fined without begetting insult on the one side and
sedition on the other. Nearly the whole continent
of America has broken the yoke of European domi-
nation ; we Englishmen with our thousand ships can
at present maintain our hold, especially on the isl-
ands, against all the world. I hope we shall ever
continue to do so, for it would be a piercing wound
to our commerce and our power if the West Indies
could be made the harbours and garrisons of possible
enemies to us. Some young politicians of more
rhetoric than information hold these things cheap ;
but every seaman, merchant, and practical states-
man knows their inestimable importance. We
must therefore act with deliberation ; we must be
firm, but cautious, conciliatory, long-suffering :
BARBADOS. 273
•»% '"
seeing that we also ourielves '.have waded to our
middle in the system which no^[ we seek to destroy.
I trust flle tenor of this book will protect me
from the imputation of wishing to justify the ex-
cesses or defend the obstinacy of some of the
colonial legislatures. Indeed I am so deeply con-
vinced of the inexpediency of their existence at all,
that if I had the right and the power to-morrow, I
would expunge the whole system and establish a
viceregal government with a council of advice in
its stead. If the colonies, through pique or mad-
ness, will not amend those parts of the system
which are plainly indefensible, they must abide by *
the consequences of having the thing done in spite
of them. But my object is to suggest to the well
meaning but inconsiderate enthusiasts of this country
that there really are solid difficulties in this matter,
and to induce them, if possible, to adopt a calmer
and more equitable tone in their conversation on a
subject with which they are but imperfecly acquaint-
ed, and which involves principles and consequences
of the extent of which they have no conception.
24
^m.
PLANTERS AND SLAVES
I hope and believe that the time is almost come
when the cause of religion, and real philanthropy,
as it respects the West Indies, will be placed on its
true footing ; and it is highly worthy of the counsels
of England to see that this cause be speedily disen-
cumbered of the trammels which prejudice, igno-
rance and hypocrisy have respectively heaped upon
it. In setting about the conversion of more than
800,000 black slaves into free citizens, we must act
sensibly and discreetly ; especially we must begin
with the beginning, for it is not a matter of decree,
edict, or act of Parliament ; there is no hocus pocus
in the thing, there are no presto movements. It is
a mighty work, yet mighty as it is, it must be effect-
ed, if at all, in the order and by the rules which
reason and experience have proved to be alone
effectual. If we attempt to reverse the order or to
alter the mode, we shall not only fail ourselves but
make it impossible that any should succeed.
I do not expect to move the convictions of those
who measure the improvement of the colonies by
the reports of a Methodist missionary, and I am quite
9
PLANTERS AND SLAVED 275
hopeless of those whose sole concern it seems to be
to make a speech at the Freemasons* Tavern, and
who can put up with the admiration which issues
from between fans and reticules. But there is, 1
trust, a large though more silent body of wise men,
who are neither Methodists nor Abolitionists, who
get up no reports and**make no speeches, but as
Englishmen, of no party but that of England, will
keep an anxious and a patient eye on a vast though
remote branch of the empire, and will not suffer the
just rights of white or black to be destroyed by the
ignorance or the wickedness of faction. This body
is the people, and their voice will be heard through
every thing, and must be obeyed in spite of every
thing. It is the voice of a monarch. But let not
the colonists imagine because there has been a natu-
ral reaction against the puerilities of the African In-
stitution, that therefore the pleaded cause of the
planters is sheerly triumphant in England ; . . . they
should know that the excesses of Macqueen are
as justly reprobated as those of Stephen, and that
neither pieces of plate, nor slaughtered men of straw
can divert the serious gaze of enlightened philan-
thropy from the very recesses of their dwellings*
England expects them as w r ell as her other sons to
do their duty, and the expectations of England are
not to be wilfully frustrated with impunity.
From the general and prominent charge indeed
of cruelty, active or permissive, towards the slaves
276 PLANTERS AND SLAVES.
%
I for one acquit the planters. I have been in twelve
of the British colonies : I have gone round and
across many of them, and have resided some months
in the most populous one for its size in the whole
world. I have observed with diligence, I have in-
quired of all sorts of people, and have mixed con-
stantly with the colored inhabitants of all hues and
of every condition. I am sure I have seen things
as they are, and I am not aware of any other bias on
my mind, except that which may be caused by a
native hatred of injustice and a contempt and dis-
dain of cant and hypocrisy. The tone of my re-
marks will probably not gain for me the favor of
either party, but it may induce many to listen, whom
the profession of a sheer white or black system
would certainly alienate.
The truth is, there is much to praise and much to
condemn ; and the present state of society in the
West Indies is of that mingled and peculiar cha-
racter that it is very difficult for any one to con-
ceive a just notion of it without personal investiga-
tion and personal contact with it. Least of all can
an untravelled Englishman understand its nature ;
fortunately for him, Slavery is a mere notional term
to his mind, and he associates with the term what-
ever he has heard or read in prose or verse con-
cerning it in the east or in the west, in the north or
in the south. He knows the strict definition of
slavery, but knows not that so defined it has never
PLANTERS AND SLAVES. 277
permanently existed in the world. He is told that
the slave is the absolute property of the master,
but knows not that really the slave is scarcely more
the absolutely property of his master than the mas-
ter is of his slave. Of the relations between mas-
ter and servant, of the pride of protecting and of
the gratitude for protection given, of the daily ha-
bits of intercourse, of the sense of mutual depend-
ence, of natural affection and of natural kindness,
of all those nameless and infinite emotions of fear
and hope and love, which though light as air itself
are strong as, yea stronger than links of iron, of all
these things which defeat the definition of slavery
and make it to be an exact lie, the inhabitant of
England knows nothing. He thinks the bondage
of the West Indies a monstrous exception to the
general freedom of mankind ; he knows not that
such has existed in every country of the earth, and
does still exist in most of them. Of the slaves of
Egypt, of Greece and of Rome he has read and for-
gotten ; of the vilains of his own land perhaps he
has not read ; of the serfs of Russia, of Poland, of
Bohemia and of Hungary he has never heard; of
the slaves of Africa, and of the slaves of Asia he
knows nothing; and the kidnappings and floggings
of those who won Trafalgar and Waterloo are hap-
pily for England clothed in such a robe of glory
that Englishmen cannot see through the majesty of
its folds.
278 PLANTERS AND SLAVES.
I would not sell my birthright for a mess of pot-
tage, yet if my birthright were taken from me, I
would fain have the pottage left. So I scorn with
an English scorn the Creole thought that the West
Indian slaves are better off than the poor peasantry
of Britain ; they are not better off, nothing like it ;
an English labourer with one shirt is worth, body
and soul, ten negro slaves, choose them where you
will. But it is nevertheless a certain truth that the
slaves in general do labour much less, do eat and
drink much more, have much more ready money,
dress much more gaily, and are treated with more
kindness and attention, when sick, than nine-tenths
of all the people of Great Britain under the condi-
tion of tradesmen, farmers and domestic servants.
It does not enter into my head to speak of these
things as constituting an equivalent, much less a
point of superiority, to the hardest shape of Eng-
lish freedom ; but it seems to me that, where Eng-
lish freedom is not and cannot be, these things may
amount to a very consolatory substitute for it. I
suspect that if it were generally known that the
slaves ate, drank and slept well, and were beyond
all comparison a gayer, smarter and more familiar
race than the poor of this kingdom, the circum-
stances of their labour being compulsory, and in
some measure of their receiving no wages for it,
would not very painfully affect the sympathies of
the ladies and gentlemen of the African Institution
PLANTERS AND SLAVES. 279
and the Anti-Slavery Society. I say, in some mea-
sure the slaves receive no wages, because no money
is paid to them on that score, but they possess ad-
vantages which the ordinary wages of labour in
England doubled could not purchase. The slaves
are so well aware of the comforts which they enjoy
under a master's purveyance that they not unfre-
quently forego freedom rather than be deprived of
them. A slave beyond the prime of life will hesitate
to accept manumission. Many negros in Barbados,
Grenada and Antigua have refused freedom when
offered to them; "what for me want free? me
have good massa, good country, plenty to eat, and
when me sick, massa's doctor physic me ; me no
want free, no not at all." A very fine coloured wo-
man in Antigua, who had been manumitted from
her youth, came to Captain Lyons, on whose estate
she had formerly been a slave, and entreated him to
cancel, if possible, her manumission, and receive
her again as a slave. " Me no longer young, Sir,
and have a daughter to maintain!" This woman
had always lived by common prostitution, a pro-
fession which usually indisposes for labour, and yet
she was importunate to return to slavery. Surely
she must have known the nature of that state and
the contingencies to which she exposed herself by
returning to it at least as well as any gentleman
in England. Every one who has been in Barbados
knows, as I have said before, that many of the
JcO TCEBS LOT SLAVES.
wretched while Creoles lure on the char
slaves, and few people would institute a comparison
■:z :::e rfr : ;::a: '.::;.- ; :' ::>: : - ; ; .^es.
lower whites of that island are without i :ion
die most degraded, worthless, hopeless nice I h:
ever met with in my life. Xhey are mor.
times enslaved*
I know perfectly well that there are many per-
sons scattered throughout our numerous color
who do inwardly cling to their old prejudices, and
veiy likely mourn in secret over the actual or de-
signed reformations of jhe present day. Bu:
;.'::::?: ev-::\ is^-d :::r:e :> ?. n^;ci:y oi bener
mind, so powerful in numbers and respectabi
that it not only puts to silence men of the anci
leaven, hut even compels them, through fear
shame, to become the ostensible friends of amelio-
ration. Surely there is nothing extraordinary in
this ; die owners of estates in the West Indies are
a changeable body, they go to England, the
the United States, they tour in Europe. Is it ac-
cording even to the most unfavourable estimate of
human conduct, that a youth educated at Oxford
or Cambridge, the naval or military officer who
has retired from his profession, the merchant, the
physician, pen of whom in England no one
would dare to whisper a reproach, should one and
all, as soon as they have landed in Carlisle Bar or
PL WUK- AM) SLAVES.
- Harbour, be transformed at once into
such monsters of avarice and bloodthirstiness that
the once glorious Wilber/orce could not find any
pity for them, if -they were all stabbed at night by
black men on their pillows of slumber ?
Caelum, non animum, mutant qui trans mare curru
<=ays Horace; but Horace, as Mr. Stephen knows,
had slaves himself, and upon one occasion argued
that he had worthily rewarded one of them for an
honest and industrious course of life by not cruci-
fying him for crows' meat. So we will give up
little Horace.
But slavery creates tt)/e change : slavery infects
the air which they breathe and the soil which they
tread: slavery hardens their hearts and darkens
their understandings! True: slavery did all this
formerly, does so sometimes now, and has a natu-
ral tendency to do as much always* Then slavery
is a bad system ? To be sure — a very bad system :
who says it is a good one ? Certainly none of the
planters with whom I am acquainted, and most cer-
tainly not the author of this book. But are temp-
tations never resisted, nay sometimes dared and
conquered and made the vantage ground of virtue •
Is not this the case with temptations even more
seductive to human weakness than starving a man
who gives me bread, and lashing a woman who
stoops and sweats to do me service ? Consider the
subject. Gentlemen of the Instituion, with a mo-
282 PLANTERS AND SLAVES.
merit's calmness. Make a few analogies with your-
selves. Put off the accusing spirit for a day, and
cry Hush! to the devil of party which distracts
the natural rectitude of your hearts. You, have
gained a great notoriety with moderate talents and
much declamation • you have succeeded by appeal-
ing with assiduity to the easily entreated sympathies
of the human, of the English, of the female bo-
som ; you have talked of Christianity with some
who scantily believe in Christ, you have spoken
when you could not be answered, and have really
condescended to soothe your ears, which were yet
tingling with the coughing of men, with the soft
applause of that delicate fraction of the ladies of
the Metropolis who frequent your tavern in Queen
Street,— •:
From Hop and Mop and Drap so clear,
Rip and Trip and Skip that were
To Mrs. Mob their sovereign dear
Her special maids of honour ;
And at the bottom of the Hall,
From Tib and Nib and Pink and Pin,
Tick and Quick and Jill and Jin,
Tit and Nit and Wap and Win,
The train that wait upon her.
You say the planters have gross prejudices, and
defend them in the face of reason and justice !
They do so, though I hope and indeed think they
are shaking them off gradually. The planters are
PLANTERS AND SLAVE!. 283
acrimonious! They are; for they are mortal men.
The system should be abolished! Pardon me;
hardly at present, I think.
The question lies between our fingers. We all
profess an intention of ameliorating the condition
of the slaves, and a wish to raise them ultimately
to an equality with the rest of the citizens of the
empire. The dispute is about the means. Now
unless we are infatuated by the mere sound of a
word, we must acknowledge that the power of
doing whatsoever a man pleases, if unaccompanied
with some moral stimulus which shall insure habit-
ual industry and correct the profligate propensities
of savage nature, is so* far from being a step in
advance that it is rather a stride backwards; in-
stead of being a blessing it is plainly a curse. The
body of the slave population do not at present pos-
sess this moral stimulus.' Emancipation therefore
would not put them in the road to become good
citizens.
What must be done then ? Manifestly this one
single thing ; we must create a moral cause in order
to be able to abolish the physical cause of labour ;
we must bring the motives which induce an English
rustic to labour to bear upon the negro ; when the
negro peasant will work regularly like the white
peasant, then he ought to be as free.
How are we to originate this moral stimulus ?
By various means.
284 PLANTERS AND SLAVES,
I. By education ; — that is to say, by teaching
every child to read ; by providing Bibles and Prayer-
books at moderate prices f by building or enlarging
churches, or increasing the times of service, so that
every one may be able to worship in the great con-
gregation once at least on the Sunday.
II. By amending the .details of existing slavery ;
that is to say, by thoroughly expurgating the colo-
nial codes, by enacting express laws of protection
for the slaves, by reforming the judicatures, by ad-
mitting the competency of slave evidence; by abo-
lishing Sunday markets at all events.; by introduc-
ing task-work; by declaring females free from cor-
poral punishment.
III. By allowing freedom to be purchased at the
market price.
To the evidence of slaves and the purchase of
freedom there is great opposition. My excellent
friend Mr. Coulthurst, who once entertained an
opinion in favour of the first, was so shocked at the
mass of perjury which it seemed to occasion that he
now more than doubts the propriety of its admission.
The answer is twofold ; first, that the evil will de-
crease every day in proportion to the advance of
education, and second, that it is necessary to con-
fer by anticipation certain privileges on the slave in
order to give room to his mind to expand, and to
propose a bounty to good conduct by stimulating his
endeavours to add personal credibility to his legal
competency.
PLACERS AND SLAVES, 285
A right to purrfjase freedom I consider to be of
supreme importance. I do,no* wish the price to be
low ; on the contrary it should, be so high as to
render the attainment of freedom a difficult task.
It should demand industry and long habits of tem-
perance; it should be so rated that, in ordinary
cases, no slave could obtain it without a certainty
of having passed through that probation which alone
can render it a blessing to him. As long as there is
no such right, the other means of improvement
must lose half of their efficacy, because they are
deprived of almost the whole of their object. Set
up the statue of liberty in the perspective, however
distant, and all that is good and honest and spiritual
in the slave, whether inborn or implanted, will im-
mediately find scope and develope vigor in the vir-
tuous pilgrimage to her shrine. The chaplet which
the slave shall win by the sweat of his brow will be
laurel to his ambition, and nepenthe to his fatigue.
The emancipations consequent on the establish-
ment of this right would of necessity be hardly earn-
ed, and therefore probably accompanied by strength
and sobriety of character. The evils contingent on
a sudden revolution would be wholly avoided ; the
slave would only cease to labour by compulsion,
when he had become willing to labour for hire ; he
would in short in most cases continue bond till he
had proved himself fit to be free. The individual
freedmen, unconnected with each other, would
25*
288 PLANTERS AND SLAVES.
form no combinations — would constitute no distinct
class, but would sink into the mass of the rest of the
society, and assume its feelings as they had obtained
its privileges. The Spanish slave, if I mistake not,
has for a long time possessed a right of purchasing
emancipation, and it is probable that to this chiefly
amongst other causes has been owing the superior
tranquillity of the immense countries of America for-
merly belonging to the crown of Castile. From
the days of Las Casas,* who originated the intro-
duction of negros into America, to the present there
have been fewer servile insurrections in the Spanish
colonies than have taken place in the British West
Indies within the last thirty years.
* Mr. Southey calls Las Casas the Clarkson of his
age, which is calling the Father of the Slave Trade by
the name of the Abolisher of it. If Mr. Clarkson's
knowledge of history be half as deep as Mr. Southey's,
he must be something puzzled at the compliment. I
am quite sure that the excellent historian of Brazil never
meant to commend the stealing and transporting of black
men in order to ease the shoulders of yellow men.
The fact is, this bishop of Chiapa, like many well
meaning persons of the present day, having fixed his
eyes intently on a good object in the distance, became
blind to the obstacles which hindered its attainment.
He perpetuated an atrocious present crime that a future
good might come, and he was deceived as usual. There
are also persons in these days who are not well mean-
ing, who have sold men, women, and children, at pub-
lic outcry, put the money in their pockets, and then,
mark me ! gone and set down their names to an anti-
slavery society. The cause of course remains the same,
— but the men, the men !
PLANTERS AND SLAVES. 287
Before I lay down my pen upon this interesting
subject, I will venture to give a word of advice to
the Planters. I speak with no assumption of supe-
riority, in no tone of indifference to their difficul-
ties, in no spirit of party whatever, I only wish
them to view their case aright. I am only anxious
that they should not ruin themselves and their de-
pendents by a misconception of the strength and
bearings of their position. They know that the un-
measured abuse of themselves by their enemies in
England has really operated to their advantage by
its apparent injustice ; they should also remember
that the contemptible scurrilities of their newspa-
per editors must for the same reasons have a simi-
lar effect to the detriment of their own cause. To
be ever talking of Saint Macauly and Saint Buxton
is an argument of nothing but weakness in those
who so speak; that it disgusts the moderation of
the English nation they may be assured.
Personal slavery, though familiar to the ancient
laws of England, is now hateful to every Englishman,
and justly so, because, independently of its wrong-
fulness, it is a state disadvantageous to the general
welfare of mankind. The practical details which
soften its pains and occasionally neutralized its evil
consequences are known only to a few, and a con-
viction of the necessity of its limited continuance
is the result of patient investigation alone. The
untraveilcd feelings of our nature are arrayed
288 PLANTERS AND SLAVES..
against it ; declamation is popular in the mouths of
its enemies and Liberty is the thrilling keynote to
all their song. But the present government of this
country is a wise government ; it is informed and
temperate ; it withstands and will not cease to with-
stand the blind effusions of compassion as well as
the malignant suggestions of faction. Yet its pa-
tience must not be mistaken for apathy, nor its
moderation for partiality. The British Executive
is neither agent nor advocate of any party, and
when it ultimately moves itself, I believe it will be
acknowledged that as its deliberations have been
long, its language will be firm and its march straight
forward.
There is abroad in the world, but more especially
in Great Britain, an unprecedented activity of mind.
We may neither fight, write, sing or pray better than
our ancestors, but we are much better informed.
Principles which Bacon knew not, and Rights which
Sidney would have trampled upon, are now the
theme of the tales of childhood, are learnt from a
nurse's lips or associated with the tones of a mo-
ther's voice. Knowledge made us free ; Freedom
increased our knowledge ; both together have made
us what we are, the first of the world. As wise, as
free, as Englishmen we obey the impulse of our na-
ture in striving to raise all mankind to a level with
ourselves. We say the king's commission should
in all places import equality of protection, that jus-
PLANTERS AND SLAVES. 289
lice should in the East and West plant the staff, and
a charter lie in the wavings of our Union.
To this national feeling the Colonists must be
respectful. It is too virtuous to be hurt by insinua-
tion, too powerful to be resisted by violence. The
slaves will not be emancipated with dangerous ab-
ruptness, but they must be educated and effectually
secured from the possible effects of caprice. The
termination of slavery may be remote, but the pro-
cess of enfranchisement must begin as to day. I
write this after a patient study of the times, and the
planters who now live will find the assertion veri-
fied.
I criminate no man's intentions ; I acknowledge
real difficulties ; I am compassionate to hereditary
prejudices. But there I stop ; for compassion be-
comes party when prejudice degenerates into obsti-
nacy. There are parts in the West Indian system
which no plea of necessity can justify. Why should
the planters refuse to change them ? Few put
them in execution, the majority condemn them,
none profit by them. Why should a man who will
not beat a woman himself, be loth to secure a wo-
man from being beaten by others ? Why should a
man, who is just himself, deny the resource of pub-
lic justice to those beneath him ? How can the
Christian, who prays for the improvement of all
mankind, block up the inlets to the spiritual regene-
ration of the coloured men around his house ? Wh y
290 PLANTERS AND SLAVES.
should he wish to do so ? What does he fear ? In-
surrections ? It is not knowledge, but uncertainty,
which does and will beget commotion; it is not
Reading and Writing, but the forbidden desire of
Reading and Writing ; not the Light, but glimpses
of the Light withholden from them, which inflict
the torments and inspire the frenzy of Tantalus.
I exhort the colonists to consider their situation,
the merits of the question, the state of national
opinion, the relative strength of the parties. Let
them not stand too nicely on the theory of their in-
dependence; well compacted as it may appear, it
could never sustain collision with a mighty oppo-
site. If Great Britain should be once provoked to
anger, the rights of the colonists would be burst
like the withs on the arms of the Nazarite, and be
consumed before the kindling of her displeasure
like tow in the fire. There is but one way by which
the interference of Parliament may be avoided, and
that is by anticipating it. If the colonists prize
their independence, let them not hazard it by oppo-
sing, but insure it by themselves executing, that
which will otherwise infallibly be done for them.
This is no question for scholastic dispute, or for
conference between the Houses ; the planters must
look at it as men of business, and take thought, not
so much of what ought to, as of what will, be done ;
not so much of nonsuiting a plaintiff, as of resisting
a forcible entry.
PLANTERS AND SLAVES. 291
The British Government asks nothing dangerous,
nothing which may not be granted with the most
apparent advantage to the planters themselves. It
asks for substantial education and substantial pro-
tection of the slaves, and a smooth road towards
ultimate emancipation. JVly solemn opinion is that
so far from these three demands being pregnant with
hazard, the very existence of the colonies depends
upon their being heartily admitted. If the philoso-
phy of man, andjMst and present experience do
not deceive us, ifr may be confidently predicted that
the West Indian Islands cannot continue for twenty
years longer in the state in which they now are.
There are mementos of insecurity on the right hand
and on the left, and many deep thoughts will rise
unbidden in a statesman's mind when he muses on
the prophecy of Berkley.
Westward the course of Empire takes its way :
The four first acts already past —
A fifth shall close the drama with the day ; —
Time's noblest offspring is his last.
THE END
On the 8th August, ten turtles, a negro youth
and myself embarked on board the good ship For-
titude laden with slave-grown sugar and molasses
and bound to London. With many a thought on
the bright eyes of St. George and the graceful form
of Uptonia, with many a hearty squeeze of the
hand from kind men and true, and many a good-
bye from my black, brown and copper-coloured
fellow subjects, I bade an eternal farewell to
Barbados. In it I ate, drank, laughed, danced and
perspired as much as ever I expect to do again in
the short remainder of my life. We weighed
anchor at one p. m., the wind gently blowing us
along from the south, the sun right over the mast-
head, and the sea as blue as the unclouded ether.
The night closed in when we were off the northern
end of the island ; the next morning and for six
weeks afterwards it was
nil nisi pontus et aer.
A dead calm for five days in the horse latitudes,
a heavy and continued gale off the Bank, our fore-
THE END. 293
top-gallant mast carried away at night, some shat-
tered Yankee schooners who always asked us how
far west we reckoned ourselves, a Dutchman who
would not speak to us and a Frenchman who would,
a man of war who kept us waiting for an hour
and then went about her business without being
commonly civil, flying fish, dying dolphins, a quail,
a flight of swallows when we were a thousand miles
from any land, and flocks of gannets on the edge of
soundings, were the events of the voyage till we
bought butter and potatoes from the Scilly mari-
ners of St. Mary's Isle.
It was heavy work sometimes certainly, but the
Captain gave us good mutton, porter, claret and
champagne, and I had Shakspeare to read and this
incomparable book of mine own to write. Once a
day I tormented the turtles, then I nursed a kitten
which was born at the foot of the fore-mast, tried to
get an English and a Barbadian pig to feed from the
same pail, which 1 found to be impossible, made up
my mind that poetical dolphins only change colours,
climbed the mizen backstay, and talked politics with
Hammond the mate, a freeman of Yarmouth and a
Whig, who hoped he shouldjbe able to turn a penny
before the next voyage. However the protracted
existence of this Parliament will put that out of the
question.
I am derheumatized. Whether I ate, drank or
sweated it out, I cannot say; but the fact is, I am
26
294 THE END.
well and flexible in all my limbs, and if the West
Indies cured me, I am very much obliged to the
West Indies for the favour.
Life in the West Indies has its pleasures and
pains, like opium. The former are drinking porter
and having common of turtle sans stint et sans
nombre ; the latter are perspiration, mosquitos, and
the yawny-drawly way in which the men converse.
But God bless thee, England, and crown thee
with blessings, thou glorious land of my fathers!
When I saw the two broad lights on the black
Lizard again, my heart swelled with that uncon-
querable passion which I used to feel on returning
from a distant school and springing into my dear
mother's arms. O my country, I have no pride
but that I belong to thee, and can write my name
in the muster roll of mankind, an Englishman. If
thou wert ten times more cloudy, and rainy and
bleak, I should still prefer thy clouds and thy storms
to the spicy gardens of the Orient. Away with
the morbid coxcomb who could rail against thy
reverend front, and dream away his life in the land
of effeminacy, emasculation and vice ! For with
thee is Peace, and Knowledge and Liberty and
Power; with thee Home is honoured, Man protect-
ed and God worshipped in truth. It is good, very
good for us to be Here.
THE END,
* 1
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